Eternal
by XxXBeautifulXxXDreamerXxX
Summary: Scarlet and Stiles are officially a couple and that means everything's great, right? No, it's all going completely wrong. Stiles' mind is ajar and things are getting inside that shouldn't be. That's only the tip of what's wrong in Scar's life, but she knows how to bounce back. Or will this be the last thing that she can handle? *Sequel to Aeonian*
1. Chapter 1

**I'M BACK BITCHES!**

**Well, I've gotten a ton of requests for this sequel so I figured I'd try to write it. I'm getting ready to get off for summer break so I'm going to have time. I hope it holds up to your expectations :)**

**There are links on my profile as usual, babes.**

* * *

"I literally don't understand this in the slightest bit!" I said, throwing the movie case to the ground. "I don't get why they think that they can just love each other when he wants to kill her."

"That's the only thing that strikes you as odd about this movie? Their entire family misses every time it's sunny out and no one questions it. To me that says shady beyond belief," Lily laughed from her spot beside me on my bed.

"I guess anything can be overlooked when you're as attractive as all of them are," I finally said. "Do you want to continue the marathon? We've still got three movies left."

I had made it a point to hang out with Lily more since the Darach thing was over. She and Stiles were literally the biggest parts of my life right after Scott and mom. I couldn't believe that it'd only been a little over three weeks since it all happened.

I kept waiting for things to get weird with Scott, Allison, and Stiles after the almost death thing. Deaton did say that there was going to be an effect on all of them, a darkness inside of them. None of us really knew what that meant, I guess we were all sort of waiting until something happened to find out.

"Stop thinking about the darkness that may or may not be around their hearts. This is the first night I've got to be with you without your twitchy boyfriend. I want to keep it that way," Lily said, hitting me with a pillow.

"I'm sorry! I'm trying as hard as I can to stay here in the moment with you, I swear!" I told her before rolling out of bed and putting in the next movie. "Let's let their drama overpower ours, okay?"

**…**

I woke up the next morning to the sound of my phone ringing by my head. It wasn't the sound of my alarm so I was a little bit freaked out. Who called me at seven in the morning?

"Baby, what's wrong? It's really early," I yawned rolling out of bed and heading towards the bathroom.

"Nothing, I just had a rough night and wanted to hear your voice. I'll tell you and Scott about it at school," he told me after he let out a relieved sigh. "I just had a weird dream and you were part of it, but you're safe and fine."

"I'll see you at school, baby. I love you," I said and hung up after he said it back.

"You guys are literally disgusting," Scott groaned as he walked into the bathroom and started peeing while I brushed my teeth. "It's too early for you guys to be this sickeningly sweet."

I shrugged my shoulders and finished my teeth before responding. "That's big talk coming from the guy who used to have "no you hang up first" fights with his girlfriend."

He flinched and covered his heart, "Ouch! That was harsh."

"Stiles said that he has to talk to us when we get to school. Apparently something is bothering him and he needs our help," I said before going back to my room to wake up Lily.

"Get up, we have school!" I told her as I dug around for an outfit. "We stayed up late watching sparkling vampires, but we still have classes."

"You just want to go so you can see your boy toy," she muttered under her breath before rolling over onto her stomach. "I want to sleep."

I heard something slam against the wall outside and heard picture frames hit the ground. I ran out of my room and saw Isaac leaning against the wall and Scott standing against his door frame. I knew that it had something to do with Allison and his growing affection for her.

Before I could say anything, mom started screaming up the stairs. "Hey! You two supernatural teenage boys, don't test my entirely un-supernatural level of patience this morning!"

"Are you okay, loser?" I asked after he and Scott apologized to mom. "You hit that wall pretty hard."

I knew that sometimes he had flashbacks of his father when he got hurt and I wanted to make sure he wasn't doing that now. He was safe here and I tried my best to make him remember that often.

"I'm okay, I told him to do it. Thank you," he said, nodding at me before disappearing back inside Scott's room.

I walked back into my room and picked out my outfit for the day. Lily was slowly coming to life and started getting ready with me.

**…**

By the time we got to school, I was anxious. Apparently Scott was having hallucinations of something about changing into an alpha when he really wasn't. I couldn't help but wonder if that had something to do with the darkness. I'm sure Allison was feeling something too.

I saw Stiles walking up the stairs and jogged to catch up to him. I wrapped my arms around his waist from behind and hugged him tightly. I felt his entire body tense up and his hands wrap around my wrists. Then I saw his head glance down before his body relaxed under my touch.

"You scared me, Scarlet," he said, tugging me around and hugging me to his front. "I've had a rough night and I'm a little bit wild right now."

"I'm sorry, baby. I'll stay with you tonight and help you feel safe," I said, running my thumb over the wayward hairs in his eyebrow.

"No, I don't think that's a good idea. I don't know how violent I get or what I'll do when I wake up," he said quickly, I could feel his heart racing from where I was standing. "I don't want to hurt you, Scar."

I wanted to push the subject more, but something had already caught his attention. I looked where he was looking and saw that it was Scott. He looked like he was tweaking out and I knew that he'd had one of his hallucinations again.

"Hey! Hey, are you alright? You don't look alright, Scott," Stiles said, grabbing Scott's shoulder and holding him upright.

"I'm okay," Scott said breathlessly.

"No, you're not. It's happening to you, too. You're seeing things, aren't you?" Stiles asked quietly.

"How'd you know?" Scott asked, looking at him with wide eyes.

"Because it's happening to all three of you. Well, well, look who's no longer the crazy one," Lydia announced as we all walked into school together.

"We're not crazy," Allison argued, but I could tell that she wasn't sure what she was saying was true.

"Hallucinating? Sleep paralysis?" she questioned with raised brows. When she saw their looks, she said, "Oh yeah, you guys are fine."

"They did all die and then come back to life. Deaton said that there would be some side effects, right?" I asked, clutching Stiles' hand in mine.

The bell signaling class was about to start rang. That meant that we all had to go to our classes and part ways with each other. That made my blood go a little bit cold. I hated being separated from all of them when something was going on.

"We have to keep an eye on each other. Okay?" Stiles said after the bell stopped ringing. "And, Lydia, stop enjoying this so much."

"What?" she asked with a sly smile on her perfectly glossed lips.

**…**

Classes had switched and I now had history first period with Stiles and Scott. I sat in the middle seat with Stiles on one side and Scott on the other. Since our last history teacher was a sacrifice, we have a new one this semester named Mr. Yukimura.

"Good morning, everyone. My name is Mr. Yukimura; I'll be taking over for your previous history teacher. My family and I moved here three weeks ago. I'm sure, by now, you all know my daughter, Kira. Or you might not since she's never actually mentioned anyone from school. Or brought home a friend for that matter," he said.

I could only imagine the embarrassment that was coursing through the girl sitting in the very back seat. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have your dad as a teacher, must less to have him embarrass you in front of everyone.

"Either way, there she is. Now, let's begin with American History at the turn of the 20th century," he said, finishing up his lecture.

I glanced over at Scott and saw that he was looking towards the back of the room. I turned my body to follow his eyes and saw that he was having a moment with Kira. I knew that look, he was thinking about how pretty she was. It was the look he gave Allison when she first moved here last year.

After class was over, I walked with Stiles over to his locker. I was digging through my bag for my homework for next class when I hear him swear under his breath. I looked up and saw that he was struggling with getting his locker opened.

I put my hands over his and stilled their jerky movements. "Hey, maybe you guys just need a little bit more time to get back to normal after everything."

"Yeah, try not to forget we hit the reset button on a supernatural beacon for supernatural creatures. There's a pretty good chance things are never going back to normal," he argued before going back to staring at the lock on his locker.

I saw the horror cross Stiles' face, but before I could comment on it Scott stopped next to us. I glanced up at him and saw that this eyes were glowing red. I followed his eyes to see that he was watching Kira and her father.

"Are you guys okay? You're really worrying me," I said, looking back and forth between them.

"Dude, your eyes!" Stiles said when he looked up at Scott instead of his locker.

"What about them?" he asked, but I thought he could tell when he was starting to shift.

"Okay, we have to get out of the hallway before you shift in front of everyone. Come on," I said, grabbing his hand and running towards an empty classroom.

"Make sure you keep your eyes down," Stiles added and I heard him chasing after us. "The last thing we need is for someone to see them and start asking questions."

"You need to stop shifting!" I shrieked when I saw that his eyes were still red.

"Get back! Get away from me!" he shouted, pushing me back into Stiles.

"Hey, it's okay. You're not going to hurt us, we know that," I said slowly, walking up to him with my hands held out in surrender.

"Scarlet, stop! I don't know what's going to happen this time! Get back!" he shouted and I stepped back to stand beside Stiles.

Stiles tried to push me behind his back, but I held strong. I wasn't weak and I wasn't scared of my brother; he would never hurt me. Stiles realized that I wasn't going to back down so he settled for taking my hand in his and intertwining our fingers.

I grimaced when I saw the blood dripping from Scott's palm onto the floor. I knew he'd sank his claws into his palm, he did that when he wanted to fight a shift.

"Pain makes you human," he grunted out.

"Scott, this isn't just in our heads. This is real and it's starting to get bad for me too. I'm not just having nightmares, I'm having dreams where I have to literally scream myself awake. And sometimes I'm not even sure if I'm actually ever awake," Stiles said shakily.

"What do you mean?" Scott asked, still trying to catch his breath for his attack earlier.

"Do you know how you can tell if you're dreaming? You can't read in dreams," Stiles told him, still holding onto my hand like a lifeline. "More and more, the past few days, I've been having trouble reading. It's like I can't see the words. I can't put the letters into the right order."

"Like, even right now?" Scott asked.

I looked up Stiles' face and saw the pure fear on his face. He was literally scared to death right now and there was nothing I could do to help him.

"I can't read a thing."

**…**

Apparently Allison was having hallucinations as well. I spoke to her and Lydia during lunch and we all made plans to go to the Preserve after school. Lydia had this plan to try and help Allison focus, but I had my doubts about it.

Like right now, Lydia was pinning a target to one of the trees. I was standing back beside Allison who was getting her bow ready.

"Do you really think that this is going to help me?" Allison asked, holding her bow to her chest.

"I know that if you think it's not going to help, it definitely won't," Lydia told her, forever being the smartest person in a group.

I loved that she wasn't afraid to be smart anymore. She used her intelligence to help people, and Allison used her skills to protect people who couldn't protect themselves. It was amazing how much they'd both grown since sophomore year. We were all becoming adults, whether it was because we chose to or not. I could only hope that I was doing the same.

I watched Allison take a couple of calming breaths before pulling back and launching an arrow. It missed the target completely. She shot another one and it missed even more than the one before. I could feel Allison's frustration bubbling up inside of her.

"Maybe if you hold the string a different way. Try the Mongolian Draw," she told her. When she saw mine and Allison's confusion, "What? I read. Try it."

"The Mongolian Draw is when you pull the string back with only your thumb," Allison explained to me. "It's supposed to change your thoughts and make you hit your target easier. It was used a lot my Mongolian hunters and soldiers during combat."

I nodded, happy that she'd brought me up to speed. She tried to do that method, but the arrow just hit the ground without being launched.

"Okay, uhm, why don't you take a second and breathe? Then close your eyes and imagine the arrow going into the target," I suggested as I saw a fight brewing in the future.

Suddenly Allison asked, "Did you guys see that?"

"See what? What are you talking about?" Lydia asked, walking over to Allison and me. "There's nothing out there, it's just us in the woods."

Allison started moving towards the thick grove of trees. "You guys wait here, I'll be right back."

"Are you serious right now? That's what the dumb girls always say in horror movies before they die," Lydia cried, but Allison was already gone.

Allison made her way back over to Lydia and me. I was about to talk to her when she pulled her bow and drew back an arrow. She let it fly and closed my eyes quickly as it came straight towards my face. I expected it to slide right through my face and kill me, but I never felt it.

I forced my eyes open and saw that Isaac had caught it less than four inches in front of my face. I felt something dripping down my cheek and reached up to touch it. Apparently the arrow got a little close before he caught it because I was bleeding.

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God, Scarlet!" Allison shrieked, running over to me and seeing if I was okay. "I didn't know it was you! I thought it was someone else! I saw something and it freaked me out and I got disoriented. I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

**…**

"Okay, slow down. Tell me what you're thinking without your usual spaz attacks," I told Stiles over the phone as I made dinner. "Who's Malia?"

"One of my dad's first cases was the death of a mom and her two kids in a car crash. He said that he thinks that it might have had a supernatural component," he told me. "They thought, at the time, that the family was killed by coyotes and the other kid, Malia Tate, was dragged away and eaten by them. Now dad thinks that something else might be the blame because it happened on the night of a full moon."

"So Malia and her family might have been attacked by a werewolf?" I asked, stirring the spaghetti in the pot. "A werewolf that then took Malia into the woods and killed her?"

"That's what I was thinking, and I think that's what dad thinks too," he told me through a yawn.

"Do you want me to come over and stay with you tonight?" I asked even though I knew what his answer would be. "I can keep you safe and comfy."

"I've already told you that I don't want you to be here when I'm like that. The last thing in the world that I ever want to do is hurt you," he told me and I could hear the frustration that he was trying to keep at bay.

"Okay, I don't want to fight with you. I'll see you tomorrow," I told him. "I love you, Stiles."

"Love you too," he told me before the line went dead.

**…**

We were sitting in Econ the next morning and Stiles looked like hell. He only said a couple of words to me that morning and kissed my head before leaving Scott and me alone. I wanted to follow him and see what was wrong, but I knew that would just annoy him more.

"Stilinski, are you paying attention back there?" Coach Finstock asked suddenly.

I looked over at Stiles and saw that he was staring off into space. At first I thought he'd fallen asleep, but then I remembered him talking about never knowing if he was awake or not. What if he had sleep paralysis right now?

Coach Finstock moved closer to Stiles and started blowing his whistle at him. I could only imagine what it was doing to Scott because I felt like my ears were bleeding. Stiles suddenly snapped back to reality and focused in on the Coach.

"Stilinski!" he shouted.

"Uh-huh?" Stiles asked, running a hand over his face and trying to look alive.

"I asked you a question."

"Uh, sorry Coach, what was it?"

"It was 'Stilinski, are you paying attention back there?' and I think you just answered it," the Coach said in frustration.

"Oh, well, I am now," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I would love it if you'd stop reminding me why I drink…every night. Does anybody else want to answer the question on the board that _was_ paying attention?" he asked as he moved away from Stiles.

I looked over at him with raised brows and waited for him to explain what was happening with him. I glanced over at Scott and saw that he was looking at him with an almost identical expression.

"It's so weird when you guys do that. It's like I'm dating both of you and it gets weird," Stiles said, trying to lighten up the situation. "I'm okay, I just fell asleep for a second."

I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth and looked at him in confusion. I felt ice licking its way up my body when I realized that he was telling the truth. He really thought that he was asleep when Coach started screaming at him.

"Dude, you weren't asleep," Scott finally told him before pointing down at his notebook.

I gasped quietly when I saw that he'd scribbled "wake up" all over to page. It was written in different ways and patterns, but it was most definitely written all over the paper. Stiles was awake somewhere inside, but he couldn't make himself move. The very thought made me grab his hand and hold it tightly mine until we were released to go to lunch.

We all sat outside like usual, joining up with Allison, Isaac, and Lydia. I wasn't very hungry because I was so worried about everyone, but Stiles kept forcing me to eat his fries. I tried to stop him, but eventually I gave in and ate the rest of them.

"Okay, so what happens to a person who has a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?" Scott asked, drawing all of our attention to the problem at hand.

"And is unable to tell what's real or not?" Stiles added.

"And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives?" Allison finished off the three sacrifices.

"They're all locked up in the bin because they're all insane," Isaac said, making me throw one of the fries at him and roll my eyes.

"Haha, can you at least try to be helpful, please?" Stiles asked sarcastically.

"For half of my childhood, I was locked in a freezer. So, being helpful is kind of a new thing for me," Isaac remarked within a couple of seconds.

"Hey, dude, are you still milking that?" Stiles asked after he recovered, making me slap his arm.

"Yeah, maybe I am still milking that," he sneered.

"Uhm, hi. Hi, sorry. I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about. And I think I actually might know what you're talking about," Kira said after walking up to our table. "There's a Tibetan word for it. It's called "Bardo," it literally means "in-between state." The state between life and death."

Instantly, territorial-Lydia reared its ugly head. "And what do they call you?"

"Kira," Scott said before the girl could speak. "She's in our history class."

I saw the way Allison looked at Scott when he said that. She had heartbreak written clearly on her face, and I couldn't say that I blamed her. She and Scott were both trying their best to get over each other, but it wasn't as easy as they'd hoped it would be. To be honest, I still thought that they were going to end up together.

"So are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" Lydia asked, her intelligence showing.

"Either, I guess. But all the stuff you guys were just saying? All that happens in Bardo," Kira said. Her face started to glow as she spoke, "There are different progressive states where you have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities."

"Wrathful deities? And what are those?" Isaac asked in confusion.

"Like demons," Kira answered.

"Demons," Stiles said flippantly. "Why the hell not?"

"Hold on, if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?" Allison asked the question that seemed to be on everyone's mind.

"Death," Kira answered excitedly. Then she saw the horror on all of our faces and quickly sobered, "You die."

**…**

After class ended, I ended up tagging along with Scott and Stiles to go talk to Deaton. I road with Stiles, sitting close to him and resting my hand on his leg. Whether he told me or not, I could tell that he was really afraid.

"You're not doing this alone, you know? You've got all of us behind you," I whispered to him. "I'm not going to leave when things get hard. I'm just going to hold on even tighter."

He parked in the lot and turned around to face me. He held my face in his hands and leaned forward to press our lips together. Kissing Stiles was something that I don't think I'll ever get tired of. There something electric about the way his lips feel against mine that I can't get enough of.

There was a harsh knock on the door and I looked over Stiles' shoulder to see Scott standing outside. He was staring at us in exasperation. Well, at least we waited until we weren't around everyone to make out.

"Can you guys come inside before I become an uncle while we're all going completely insane," Scott said after Stiles opened up his door.

I felt my face getting hot and I hid it away from them as we went inside. I let Scott and Stiles explain what was happening to them and Allison since the night of the sacrifices. I was still insanely embarrassed about Scott catching us making out.

"It sounds like your subconscious is trying to communicate with you," Deaton finally said after he'd heard all the details.

"Well, how do I tell my subconscious to use a language that I actually know?" Stiles asked, scrubbing his hands up and down his face in frustration.

"Do you remember what the sign language looked like? The placement and movement of the hands?" Deaton asked, trying to make sense out of Stiles' dream.

"You know sign language?" Scott asked Deaton in surprise.

"I know a little. Let me give it a shot," Deaton answered, smiling at Scott's surprise.

Stiles nodded his head and started signing, "The first one is like this"

""That's when," Deaton supplied, watching Stiles' hand movements.

Stiles signed the rest of his dream out and Deaton translated it all out, "When is a door not a door?"

"When it's ajar," I answered suddenly, making them all jump.

"You've got to be freakin' kidding me right now! My subconscious wants to tell me a riddle?" Stiles shrieked, tossing his hands up in the air.

"Not necessarily. When the three of you went under the water, when you crossed from unconsciousness to a kind of super-consciousness, you essentially opened a door into your minds," Deaton explained to them, putting all the puzzle pieces together like always.

"So what does that mean? Are the doors in our minds still open?" Scott asked, looking at Deaton with his eyebrows knitted together.

"No, they're all still ajar," I answered like it was the easiest thing in the world. "The doors in your minds are still ajar and things can get inside."

"The doors in our minds are still ajar?" Stiles shouted.

"I did tell you that it was risky before you all did it," Deaton told him.

"You know what's wrong with me, I can tell by that look! It's the 'we know exactly what's wrong with you, but we have no idea how to fix you,' look," Stiles said.

"One thing I do know is that having an opening like that into your mind, it's not good. You each need to close that door and you need to do it as soon as you can," Deaton instructed.

We were on our way out of the clinic when we ran into Sheriff Stilinski. He was looking for Scott to get help solving the Tate case that Stiles told me about earlier.

"Why me?" he asked like he wasn't used to being the good guy in every situation.

"Because eight years ago, almost an entire family died in a car accident. One of the bodies, a young girl named Malia, was never found. There's enough evidence to have me thinking that a werewolf could have caused the accident, and then dragged her body away. If you could somehow lock on her scent, if you could somehow help me find the body, it might provide the missing clue," Sheriff Stilinski explained.

"But what if it was a werewolf?" Stiles asked,

"Well, there's somebody out there who murdered an entire family. Someone who still needs to be caught," the Sheriff reasoned.

**…**

"How dare you treat me like I'm a child, Stiles Stilinski?! I can handle myself just fine at this house, I've been through a hell of a lot worse. Or did you forget the time Lydia and I were alone with the Darach in Derek's loft?" I shouted at him after he told me that he was taking me home.

"You're going to be mad no matter what I say so I'm just going to stay quiet. You're going home and that's it," he answered as he drove.

I slammed myself against his door and crossed my arms over my chest. I didn't say a word to him then entire ride and as soon as we pulled up in front of my house, I got out and didn't look back. If he wanted to act like my dad, I would act like an ungrateful child.

"Hey, where's the fire? You're slamming in like you're throwing a tantrum," Isaac said as I slammed the front door. "What'd Stilinski do?"

"He's still treating me like I'm a damn child! I'm older than he is!" I shouted, throwing my backpack onto the couch. "I'm just as capable as he is to do things, and I don't have fucking nightmares that I don't know if I'm sleeping for."

"He's just trying to keep you safe, Scarlet. He's afraid that if you go somewhere that you might not come back," Allison told me, walking into the living room from the kitchen.

"Uhm, Allison can we go talk where Isaac can't hear us? I asked, not even trying to be polite. "And before you say no, it wasn't really a question."

She just nodded and grabbed her things before going out to her car. I would just text Scott and have him pick me up before he came home. I needed to get to the end of whatever was going on between her and Isaac.

Once we were in the car, I started in on my interrogation. "Whatever you say in this car, stays in this car. What's going on with you and Isaac?"

"What do you mean?" she asked me. Then she saw the look on my face and quickly recanted, "It wasn't supposed to be like this. I didn't start having feelings for him on purpose, they just sort of happened. It's not like anything has happened between us or anything…"

"But if he made a move you'd let him?" I added in after she trailed off. "I'm not telling you that you can't move on after Scott, because you can it's only fair, but do you have to do it with the guy who lives with us?"

"There's just something about Isaac that draws me to him," she said. "I don't want Scott to hate me, god, I don't want that. I just want to be able to be around him and not want to kiss him.

"Do you want to know why I think you're into Isaac?" I asked. When she nodded, I said, "I think it's because he's this little hurt puppy and you feel like you have to protect him. You have this 'great protector' thing going on."

"I guess you're right, but I really don't know. I don't know anything about anything going on," she said after she parked in her lot. "Well, that's not necessarily true. I know that I'm still in love with Scott, but I really like Isaac and it's confusing the hell out of me."

"Oh wow, you're really in deep aren't you?" I asked after she laid all that out. "What does Lydia have to say about this? I'm sure you've talked "to her already."

"Not really, I don't think she'd really understand what I'm going through right now," she said. "I haven't told anyone, but I figured, why not tell you?"

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, my boyfriend treats me like I'm a child. Either that or like I'm the weakest thing in the world and I hate it," I told her, squeezing her arm.

"He doesn't think you're weak, it's the opposite. You should see how he talks about you when you're not around. He's so in love with you and your strength, and your stubbornness," she said. "Don't ever think that he doesn't believe in you."

**…**

Mom ended up picking me up on her way home from work. It seemed like it was a lot easier than calling Scott and having to ride on the back of his dirt bike in my dress. I hated doing that, I felt like I flashed everything that I had.

"I'm trying to help!" I heard my _dad_ shout as soon as I walked into the house.

"That doesn't make any sense! Who are you helping, dad? Just get out," Scott shouted at him in return.

"Scott," my dad warned, but Scott was already too far gone to stop now.

"What? I can't believe you'd do this to my best friend or his dad!" he screamed and I saw his eyes flash red.

"I'm not doing anything to your friend; I'm just doing my job," _dad_ tried to reason, but I knew Scott wasn't going to hear a word that he said.

"Well, your job sucks!"

"Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on here?" mom asked after she walked in mid-argument.

"He's trying to get Stiles' dad fired!" I said, moving to stand with Scott so _he_ knew that no one was on his side right now.

"No, that's not true," _he_ tried to reason.

"What are you doing then?"

"Conducting a case for impeachment."

"That sounds a whole hell of a lot like trying to get him fired," I told him, placing my hands on my hips and staring him down.

"The lack of resolution and ability to close cases is what's going to get him fired. My job is just to collect the information and it's the job my superiors have given me," dad said.

"Well, your job sucks," mom told him.

I glanced over at Scott and saw that he was trying his best to not shift, but he wasn't doing too good of a job at it. I grabbed his and mom's hands and drug them into the hall away from _dad_.

"Scott, you have to calm down. Come with us and breathe," I said. As soon as we were out of _his _hearing range, I said, "Let it go; shift and then come back."

"I'm trying," he forced out through gritted teeth.

"You told me that you, Stiles, and Scarlet figured out a way to control this. You find an anchor, right? Find your anchor," mom instructed, rubbing his back.

"My anchor was Allison and I don't have her anymore," Scott said miserably.

"Be your own anchor, Scott. I believe in you, you can do this," I said, holding his hands in mine.

Scott was panting and groaning as his shift kept coming on strong. He was still too in love with Allison to ever think about finding a new anchor. His love for her was going to get us all killed if he didn't figure it out.

"Sweetheart, let me tell you something that no teenager ever believes, but I swear to you, both of you, that it's the absolute truth. You fall in love more than once; it'll happen again for you, Scott. And it'll be just as amazing and extraordinary as the first time," mom told him. "And maybe just as painful, but it will happen again, I promise. Until then, be your own anchor."

I saw Scott struggling with himself for a couple of tense seconds before his breathing evened out. He let go of my hands and pulled me and mom in for a hug. It seemed like he'd became his own anchor.

**…**

I'd only been asleep for little over an hour when Scott burst into my room. He was wearing a hoodie and jeans with a flashlight in his hands. I had a weird flashback of that fateful day back in the beginning of our sophomore year before I spoke.

"What the hell are you doing in my room at one in the morning with a flashlight?"

"We're going to look for a body, duh! This is my 'dead body hunting outfit,' don't you have one?" he said, smiling like he used to before all of this happened.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I do actually have one. This is weird," I said before getting up and digging around for my clothes. "Why do we always hunt for dead bodies? This is a weird extra-curricular activity to have. I can't even put it on college applications. I mean, what would I say? 'Oh, I find dead things, or half of dead things, or sometimes werewolves. It just depends on the day or the moon'?"

"You have officially been spending way too much time with Stiles."

I waited outside on Scott's dirt bike while he went to get Stiles. I was still aggravated at him for earlier, I wasn't going to ride with him in his jeep right now. I would wait until it got colder tonight to cross that bridge.

"What are we doing out in the freezing cold?" Stiles groaned as he and Scott walked back to me together.

"We're going to find a body," Scott said. "Together."

**…**

"This is almost scary how much it's just like last year," I whispered as we walked through the darkened woods together.

"Yes, but we've got a few things in our favor this time. I brought a flashlight and so did Stiles, and I have a nose that can help us get to our destination better than any GPS," Scott said, tapping his nose jokingly.

"You know, if my dad's right, that means there's another werewolf in town that we haven't met yet," Stiles said.

"I know."

"If it turns out to be something like triplets that form into, like, a three-headed hound from hell, I'm seriously not up for that," Stiles said, holding up his hands to Scott.

"I don't think Scar and I are either," Scott agreed. "Especially if I can't control my transformations anymore."

A loud howl ripped around us and made us freeze in our tracks. It sounded lonely and vaguely scary, but I wasn't as easily scared as I was a year ago. If I was, this weird sense of déjà vu would be crippling me. It startled Stiles so badly that he threw his flashlight and made me snicker.

_He thought he was the brave one, as if_.

"I'm sorry, buddy, but I hate coyotes so much. They always sound like they're mauling some tiny, helpless animal," Stiles said after the howling stopped.

"We all know how you love to _protect_ things that you think are helpless. Maybe we should lock all the little animals in their houses," I sneered, stomping away from Stiles.

"It still works, thank god," I said as I picked up his flashlight and flicked it back on. "Plus, I think we found it."

"Uhm, wouldn't they have moved it? Isn't it evidence?" Scott asked as we all moved closer to it slowly.

"It was probably too much of a pain in the ass to tow out," Stiles said. Then he pointed to the scratch marks on the side, "See those? Animal claws would be closer together, right? A lot closer."

"Then it was a werewolf," I whispered as Scott held his fingers over the claws and saw that they almost perfectly aligned.

"So my dad was right!" Stiles said in victory.

"Do you remember those pictures that we saw at the Tate's house earlier, Stiles? Isn't that the same doll?" Scott asked, pointing to a dirty doll sitting in the wreckage.

Scott picked it up and all of a sudden it said, "I'm hungry!"

I screamed and jumped behind Stiles, clutching him as adrenaline coursed through my body. I was proud to say that I was the only one who screamed nor was I the shrillest. I wasn't proud to say, however, that my boyfriend was the loudest _and_ the shrillest.

"I think I just had a minor heart attack!" Stiles exclaimed after we'd started breathing normally again.

I heard growling over in the bushes and turned to see that there was a pair of glowing eyes inside of it. They weren't the eyes of any animal, they were the eyes of a werewolf.

"Hey, guys, please tell me you see that," Scott said.

"We both see it," Stiles reassured him. "Wait, hey, Scott! Scott, wait!"

It was no use, Scott ran off after the glowing eyes from the bush. I knew better than to chase after him so I stayed put with Stiles. I could tell by the look on his face he was going to question me on my icy attitude towards him so I beat him to the punch.

"Don't treat me like I'm breakable just because I'm your girlfriend now or I won't be anymore," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I love you so much, Scarlet, and it terrifies me that you're so reckless sometimes. I love that you're independent and you fight just as hard as everyone else, but I'm scared that you're going to be hurt or worse. I can't lose you," Stiles said, walking up to me and trying to hold me, but I wouldn't let him.

"I'm the same girl I was before everything changed, don't treat me any different. I love you, but this had to stop," I said, allowing him to touch me. "Okay?"

He sighed and nodded before holding my waist and pressing a kiss to my forehead. "Fine."

* * *

**Reviews tell me if I'm supposed to keep going or leave it :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**There was an overwhelming amount of people that were so happy that I wrote this. Thank you so much for being there and appreciating my work. It means so much.**

* * *

While Scott was on his little run, Stiles and I started looking around. If that car was this close to us, it meant that the werewolf's lair must be close. I let out an excited noise when I saw a cave up ahead of me and started jogging towards it with my flashlight held out in front of me.

"Scarlet Lorraine McCall, you do _not_ run into mysterious caves unless I'm running into them with you!" he shrieked, running up to me and grabbing my hand. "Okay, now you may proceed."

I rolled my eyes at his dorkiness and walked slowly into the cave. I was on my toes just in case the werewolf came out, but I didn't hear anything. I came to the end and found all kinds of random kids' toys.

"We have to go find Scott before we go any further," I said, turning on my heels and running back outside.

I ended up running into Scott as I walked through the woods on the hunt for him. I figured he'd been searching for Stiles and me and tracked our scent here. It happened so often I wasn't surprised by it any longer.

"I think Scar and I found something," Stiles said after he'd calmed down from the shock of seeing Scott so suddenly.

"So did I," Scott told us.

"It's a coyote den," Stiles kept going.

A _coyote_ den made a whole lot more sense than a wolf den. That also made sense that we'd heard that coyote howl earlier, that was what Scott had chased off. There wasn't a random werewolf in Beacon Hills, it was a were _coyote_.

"It's not a coyote den, it's a were coyote den," I said before Scott could beat me to it; I knew he already knew what was going on.

By this time, we'd made it back to the den and worked our way inside. I hadn't even realized that we were walking, but I guess I was too busy putting together the pieces that everyone else already had together, together.

Stiles was over next to the clothing that we'd seen earlier. "Do you see this? This is Malia's. Remember, it's the same one she was wearing in the photo."

"We shouldn't have come in here," Scott said suddenly. When Scott and I gave him a confused look, he went on to explain, "She's not going to come back here now. We just invaded her home, our scent's going to be everywhere."

I felt guilt running over me at ruining the one place she still felt safe. Then I remembered that she'd mauled her entire family in car and then ran off and my guilt melted away.

"If she's not going to come back here, where's she going to go?" Stiles asked.

I saw Scott wracking his mind to come up with an answer to Stiles' question, but I knew he was going to come up blank. "I don't have any idea, to be honest."

"Do you think you could track here now? You think you've got her scent?" Stiles asked excitedly, glancing over at all the things sitting in the den.

"Maybe, but I'm better when I'm a full wolf; and I'm still worried that if I do that, I won't be able to turn back," Scott answered.

I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his middle. I knew how much he was struggling with finding another anchor. He wanted to be the True Alpha that he knew he could be, but he was too scared. I guess even the bravest people in the world couldn't be brave all the time, right?

"I'm guessing your door's still open," Stiles said with a sigh, clapping his hands together in frustration.

I leaned my head against Scott's shoulder and tried my best to comfort him. I knew that he hated having his door still open and it wasn't fair. I should've been the one to go into that tub, he has way too much on his plate already. I was seriously so selfish, I should've fought him about it.

"If I can't get to Derek, we're going to have to find someone else to help," Scott said, checking his phone and frowning when he saw that Derek hadn't tried to call him back. "This is basically a crime scene, right? I think it might be a little out of my boss' league…"

Stiles seemed to know exactly where Scott was going with that because he finished his thought, "…and more in my dad's."

Stiles walked away from Scott and me to call his dad and figured it was the perfect time to tell him what I was thinking. I mean, he and I were never alone anymore. There was always a werewolf, banshee, hunter, or Stiles in the way.

"I'm sorry that I didn't fight you harder to go into that tub. If I would've, it would've been me with this problem and you could find that coyote," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"You and I both know that there's no way I would've let you go in my place. You're my sister, my family, and the most important thing to me is that you and mom are safe," he said, pulling me close to him and hugging me tight. "I love the others, but there's nothing in the world I wouldn't do to keep the two of you safe. _Nothing_."

"Dad's on his way," Stiles said, jogging back over to us. "Hey, what's up? Is something wrong?"

I pulled out of Scott's grip and turned around to face my concerned boyfriend. "No, it's nothing. I'm just cold and a little on edge."

Stiles opened up his arms and said, "Well, bring it on in then. I'll warm you up with my utter hotness, babe."

I rolled my eyes at how dorky he was, but I walked into his arms anyway. I slid my hands under his jacket to wrap around his waist and felt his warmth instantly soak into me. I hadn't realized how chilly I really was, but now that the feeling was coming back to my fingers it was painfully obvious.

I heard the crunch of tires and knew that the Sheriff was here. I expected Stiles to pull away from me, but he just kept holding me. Even when his dad came up to us, he still held me close. Aw, it was moments like this that I truly adored Stiles Stilinski.

While Stiles and I were cuddling with each other, Scott told the Sheriff all that we knew about Malia being the werecoyote. That was still weird, but I was just going to ignore it.

"You're sure that it was her?" he asked, trying his best to wrap his head around what was happening.

"I looked her right in the eyes and they glowed just like mine," Scott tried his best to reassure him.

"It makes sense, dad," Stiles said without letting go of me.

His dad didn't even bat a lash at our position, which said a lot about him and what he'd seen us do. Oh my god, that sounded so bad! We have _done_ anything, we just cuddle together on his couch a lot. I had a tendency to slip my hands under his shirt when they were cold, I guess Sheriff Stilinski was used to it.

"But it wasn't a girl, it was a four-legged coyote, right?" he clarified.

"Well, okay. Yeah, see, that's the point that we don't exactly have figured out just yet," Stiles responded; I couldn't see his expression, but I was almost positive it was confused.

"Okay, but if it was a full moon and she did change while her mom was driving, anything could have happened," Scott said.

"Horrible things could've happened in that car," I said, turning my face so I could look at the Sheriff. "Things that involve ripping, shredding, and tearing."

"That could totally be what caused the accident," Stiles said, backing me up.

"Think about it, Sheriff. They're driving, Malia stars to change, she goes out of control, the mom crashes and everybody dies," Scott started talking. "Trust me, whenever you change it's so hard to control yourself at first."

"Everyone died in that car, everyone except for Malia."

"She blames herself, alright, goes off running in the woods and eventually becomes trapped inside the body of a coyote," Stiles wrapped up the story.

"That actually makes sense…in a Chinese folktale!" Sheriff said, tossing his hands in the air in a very Stiles-like manner. "Kids, this is completely insane. I need this kept quiet, the three of you, not a word! I don't want anyone hearing about this. I especially don't want Mr. Tate hearing about this. Scott? Scott!"

I looked over at my brother and saw him staring off into the distance. There was something about his expression that looked eerily familiar, but I couldn't place where. Then it hit me: it reminded me of that day in Coach's class with Stiles. Yet, there was something in his eyes that told me it wasn't as severe.

Scott seemed to shake himself clear of whatever was going on in his mind. "Sorry. What did you say?

Sheriff Stilinski swore under his breath and I let go of Stiles to see what he was looking at. I swore in my mind when I saw that it was _daddy dearest_ coming along with some man. Stiles stepped up behind me and I leaned back, I didn't want to be too far from him.

He showed the man, Malia's dad I'd learned, the clothes and he quickly confirmed that they were Malia's. I felt my heart give a painful squeeze for him. He'd already put his family in the ground and now he had to go through it all over again. That was a form of hell that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

"Alright, wait here," Agent McCall said, and started to move towards the den only for Scott to stop him. "I'll talk to you two in a minute. I wouldn't mind hearing how your mother's okay with you all running around in the woods this late."

I looked over at the Sheriff and he seemed to get that I wanted him to change the subject quickly. He was the only father figure I'd ever had in my life and I wanted to keep it that way.

It was safe to say that he didn't like _dad_ either. "What the hell are you doing, bringing him here?"

_He_ responded easily, like he'd already been prepared for the question. "I'm getting confirmation on a more than significant lead and starting to understand why your department can't close cases."

"There's not body here, there are no remains to identify," Sheriff Stilinski shot back at him.

"Well, not yet, Sheriff, but do a little digging and I'm sure you'll uncover something. Like the bones of a nine year old." The cruelty in _dad's_ voice made me flinch and clutch Stiles' hands in mine.

"I think you're going to find that it's just a little bit more complicated than that, special agent." The sass was so real that it made me smile.

"Come on, Stilinski, you know how this goes," the _special agent_ stated. "It's not knowing that ruins people like Tate. The truth, no matter how profoundly it sucks, the truth is better than not knowing."

I wanted to scream at him that he had no idea what telling the truth even meant. He did, however, know how to destroy lives. He'd ruined three of them in one fatal swoop and seemed less than apologetic about it. I turned on my heel and started walking back to Stiles' Jeep instead of saying all the things that I wanted to.

"I'm sorry that my dad is such an ass and that he's trying to ruin your dad's life," I told Stiles once we were inside the car. "I wish he would just go back to where ever he was before and stay there."

He kissed the side of my head before we put on our seatbelts and started driving me home. I kicked my boots into the floorboard and pulled my knees up into the seat with me. I felt my eyes getting heavy as I struggled to stay awake in the warm cocoon of the ar.

…

I woke up the next morning in my bed with my clothes on from last night. My boots and jacket were next to my bed and I knew Stiles had packed me in last night. That made a warmth fill up in stomach and grin sprout onto my lips.

"Get your ass up, you're not shutting me out again. I want to know what's going on," Lily said, slamming open my bedroom door and making me jump.

"Dammit, Lilian Alliyah Trent! I almost peed all over myself," I shouted at her.

"Sorry, I want to know what's going on. Tell me everything," she told me again, a little quieter, but not very much.

"I have to take a shower, do you want to sit in like usual?" I asked as I dug around for an outfit.

Okay, let me explain a little bit about that. Lily and I have been best friends since we were young, we've done a lot of odd things. We were insanely close and that meant that we often sat together while we showered and talked about everything under the moon.

Once she was caught up to speed, I had already gotten dressed and finished my makeup. I hadn't realized how long the story truly was until I had to tell her all about it. When I was completely finished, I pulled up the coyote Wikipedia page and read up on them as Lily drove us to school.

"Dude, coyotes are actually really interesting animals!" I told her as we walked into school together. "I had no idea how cool they really were."

"You're such a dork," Stiles said as he heard my exclamation. "I think it's cute."

Allison and Scott joined up in our circle along with Isaac. I figured this would be the best time to tell them all what I'd learned about the coyotes.

"Malia's den is in the middle of the hiking trails, right? Well, that makes it a whole lot easier to narrow things down," I said, speaking with my hands. "Coyotes travel on fixed trails, but I don't think she's going to go back to her den. Coyotes also hate wolves, and they're really smart. Sometimes, when they don't want to be heard, the actually walk on their toes."

The bell rang and the kids started making their way to class. Allison asked Stiles to send her the pinned location of the den and left with Isaac trailing behind her. I saw Kira walking up to all of us and grabbed Stiles and Lily's hands, dragging them away.

"They are so cute!" Lily exclaimed, watching the from behind the row of lockers with me. "I'm just glad to see that he and Allison are both moving on. I didn't think that would ever happen."

"I'm going somewhere less gossipy," Stiles said. "I love you."

I stood on my tiptoes, wrapped my arms around his neck, and pressed our lips together. It was a chaste kiss, but I heard Lily gagging under her breath regardless. I flipped her off over his shoulder and kissed him a little while longer before letting him leave.

"You two seem to be super touchy lately. I still can't get used to watching you two together," she said as I watched him walk away. "That smile on your face is disgusting, just so you know."

I rolled my eyes and hugged her before heading towards history class. I sat in my usual seat between Scott and Stiles and saw Kira's face was red. I just shrugged it off as Mr. Yukimura started to call the class to order.

"When we last met, we were talking about internment camps and prisoners of war. There's a passage in our reading that I'd like to go over in more detail," he said before looking out at the class. "Who would like to come up and read aloud for us? Mr. Stilinski, how about you?"

I remembered him saying that he was having trouble reading, and I saw the look of terror cross his face before I said, "I want to come read, Mr. Yukimura."

"Thank you, but I want Mr. Stilinski," he said, smiling good naturedly at me before looking back at Stiles. "Well…?"

"Uhm, can Scarlet read? I really don't want to," he said, wiping his hands on his pants as he spoke.

"Everyone participates in my class, Mr. Stilinski, and Miss McCall read yesterday," he said, getting a little annoyed. "That means it's your turn."

I saw him whispering to himself as he looked at the page. He kept looking at his book, and I saw the scared look on his face intensify. His breathing started to get heavier and I thought that he might be having a panic attack.

"I should take him to the nurse's office. Stiles, look at me, man," Scott said, crouching next to his desk. "Is this a panic attack?"

They were up and out of the room before I even realized it. I wanted to chase after them, but one look from Mr. Yukimura told me that I needed to sit back down. The last thing I wanted was to get into trouble again for leaving class so I stayed until he gave us the assignment and I left.

I walked by the boys' bathroom and heard talking. I assumed that it was the boys, prayed that it was only them in there, and walked in. Stiles was leaning back against the sink when I shut the door behind me and Scott nodded at me that he was okay.

I wrapped my arms as tightly around Stiles' shaking body as I could. The last thing I wanted was for him to think that I had abandoned him. The way he held me to him told me that he was finally calming down, and he was glad that I was there now.

"What the hell is happening to me?" he breathed out after I let him go.

"We'll figure it out," Scott reassured him, squeezing his shoulder. "You're going to be okay."

"Am I? Are you?' Stiles asked, hysteria bubbling up inside of him as he started talking, turning his mouth on like a water spigot and letting his worries pour out. "Scott, you can't transform, Allison's being haunted by her dead aunt, and I'm straight up losing my freakin' mind! We can't do this! We can't help Malia; we can't help anyone."

He was hysterical by the time he finished speaking and I felt my heat shattering. I looked over at Scott and saw that he was heartbroken as well. This wasn't how our lives were supposed to be, we were supposed to be happy teenagers.

I was supposed to break curfew making out with Stiles in his Jeep instead of running around in the woods looking for werecoyotes. Scott was supposed to be crushing on Kira and trying to get over Allison instead of worrying about killing people when he finally transforms into a werewolf. Stiles should be worrying about how he was going to ask me to homecoming or his dad losing his job, not losing his mind and not being able to sleep because of a door that was ajar.

"We can try; we can always try," Scott said finally, sounding older than he should have.

…

After I was sure Stiles was okay, I left to find Lily. She was standing at the end of the hall with Hailey Daniels, a girl that we'd gone to school with forever, but I don't think we'd ever talked to before. I walked up to them and waved happily, trying to act like my entire world wasn't caving in around me.

"Hi, what's up?" I asked, clutching my backpack straps. "It looks like some good gossip is getting shared. Can I get in on it?"

Hailey looked at me with an annoyed look before turning back to Lily. "As I was saying, I can so hook you up with him. Just come to that _thing _I mentioned earlier, it'll be so easy."

She walked away with a flip of her obnoxious, peroxide blonde hair over her shoulder. There was something about this situation that made me feel uncomfortable. When I looked at Lily, I realized what it was. She had a guarded look on her face and it was directed towards me.

"Lils, what's wrong? Did she say something?" I asked, holding her shoulder in my hand.

She shrugged me off and I flinched like she'd shot me. "I was just thinking that maybe I should start hanging out with other people. I remember how I was last term when you got all wrapped up in the werewolf stuff, I don't want to look like a loner again."

"Lily, you're my best friend. I want you to be involved in stuff, I just don't want you to get hurt," I said. Then I realized that was exactly what Stiles said to me earlier. "Oh my gosh, Lily, I want you in my life. I want you to be part of this, but I just don't know how to include you without you getting hurt. I know that's really shitty, but it's how it goes."

"I'm tired of being the fatal flaw in your life, Scarlet! I want to talk to you about boys and shoes and clothes, but that's so trivial compared to all the things you're going through. We don't mesh anymore, Scar," she said, closing her locker. "I love you, but I don't think this friendship can work anymore."

She turned on her heel and walked away, leaving me alone in the hallway. I felt my eyes burning so I ran towards the bathroom quickly. Before I got there, I saw Kira walking through the halls with mine, Scott's, and Stiles' backpacks in her hands.

"Hey, have you see your brother or boyfriend?" she asked, handing me my bag. "Oh man, have you been crying? Are you okay?"

"I think my best friend just broke up with me," I laughed miserably through the few tears that had escaped. "Thank you for bringing me their bags, I'm sure I'll find them eventually. I didn't even realized I'd left mine in the room, to be honest."

I heard growling behind me and turned to see Malia standing at the end of the hallway. I felt my stomach drop to my knees and I grabbed Kira's hand in mine. I shouldered mine and Stiles' backpacks and saw her do the same with Scott's.

I tugged her towards the locker rooms and dropped all of our bags before hiding behind a row of lockers. I clasped my hand over my mouth and tried to be as small and quiet as possible. Kira was still clutching my hand in hers and I wasn't trying to make her let go; I was freaked and having her there was sort of calming.

I heard glass break and nails clack against the tile before it was silent. Coyotes could tiptoe, I remembered quickly. Uh-oh, that was not good. There was no way to tell where she was.

Then I heard a row of lockers crash to the ground, took a deep breath, and stood up. I saw Scott standing by the door with flashing red eyes. I pointed at my eyes and saw him quickly close his and shake his head. When he opened them, they were normal brown again.

"What just happened? Was that a coyote? How'd it get in here?" Kira asked, borderline hysterical.

Then I saw her take a deep breath and practically felt her tension melt off. This girl was a resilient little thing, I admired that.

"Scarlet!" I heard Stiles shouted before running over to me and hugging me. "I'm so glad you're okay. Oh my god!"

After Stiles let go of me, I glanced over at our backpacks. Mine and Scott's were fine, but Stiles' had slash marks all through it from Malia's claws. I walked closer to it and saw the glassy eye of a doll staring up at me.

"You're a freakin' idiot! You stole a little girl's doll and then expected her to _not _come after it?" I shrieked at Stiles, slapping his chest with the back of my hand.

"Yeah, I thought that Scott could use it, you know, for, like, her scent?" Stiles said slowly, realizing how stupid the idea was as he spoke. "Oh wow, that really was dumb."

Scott dug into Stiles' bag and pulled the doll out. He was about to yell at Stiles when someone else's voice broke through, "Where did you get that? Where do you find this? It belonged to my daughter!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Tate, but I don't know how you heard about this," Sheriff Stilinski said. "If you got your own police scanner or what, but you can't be here."

"I have a permit," he said after an awkward look exchange.

"California schools are gun-free zones, permit or not permit," the Sheriff said quietly, but I could still hear him. "You need to leave, Mr. Tate. Now."

I saw the man struggling to find words as he got reprimanded. "You find that animal, Sheriff. You find that thing that killed my family."

He turned on his heels and walked out of the school. With all the drama slowly dying down, I remembered what happened between Lily and me. Fresh tears started burning my eyes, but I blinked them back quickly. There were a lot worse things going on right now than me losing Lily. I could wait until I was alone to mourn that.

…

Stiles, Scott, and Isaac all headed to the vet after the got a text from Allison saying she got the tranquilizer gun. While they were off doing that, I texted Lydia. I needed to talk to someone about my Lily drama before I went completely insane. She was usually the person that I went to when I needed to talk.

I met her at the mall and, after we got out coffee, we sat down in a booth. I took a drink and a breath before I started telling her about my life.

"Lily and I aren't friends anymore," I said, breathing slowly. "She told me that she didn't want to be left alone again when I got into the werewolf drama."

"Oh man, really?" she asked. "Haven't you guys been best friends as long as Scott and Stiles have? It's pretty bad that she just gave up."

"I'm a shit friend and I know that. I just wish we could've talked it out first or something, I guess," I said, chewing on my straw. "Should I call her and tell her what I think or let things go?"

"Just let her breathe for a while before you try to patch things up," she told me after she thought for a minute. "I'm sure you guys will work it out."

I let out a sigh, but I knew she had to be right. I didn't deserve a friend like Lily, I treated her like crap and she finally had enough. I didn't do it on purpose, I swear. I just got involved in things that _I _could barely handle with a werewolf twin brother so I knew she couldn't.

It was different last year when the Kanima was our only problem. That was Jackson and she and I could remain relatively safe. The alphas and Darach was something that I knew nothing about so I had to exclude her. Now my friends and brother were going batshit crazy, there was no way of knowing whether or not she'd get hurt if they were out of their minds.

"Stop beating yourself up over this, Scar. It's not your fault," Lydia said, drawing my attention back to her. "Anyways, she had no fashion sense and brought yours down. You deserve a best friend who knows that boyfriend jeans are so out of style that it's almost a crime to wear them."

I rolled my eyes and finished my drink with her. I picked a really good person to hang out with. She got my mind off of the situation better than anyone else could have. When she got a call from Stiles, I tagged along with her to Derek's loft.

"I'm going to call Aiden and see if he and Ethan will meet us there," she said as she drove. "Apparently, your brother wants them to show him how to change into an alpha or roar or something."

"Is that going to be safe?" I asked even though I knew the answer. "I don't know why I asked that, I so know the answer."

…

I walked into the dark loft with Lydia just behind the boys. It looked like it was completely empty inside so I took Lydia's hand in mine on reflex. Let's just say, neither of us were really over the surprise attack that we both experience last term.

"They said they'd meet us here," Lydia said after I shut the door behind me and heard it echo around the room.

Suddenly, the twins jumped out and started beating Scott up. I tried to run over and stop them, but Stiles grabbed me around the waist and held me back. I tried fighting him to let me go, but it was no use. I saw blood splash onto the ground and closed my eyes tightly.

"I thought you guys were going to teach me how to roar!" Scott groaned out as a punch landed against his ribs.

"We are. You do it by giving in," Aiden responded after he punched him again while Ethan held him.

"Giving in and letting go, that's how Deucalion taught us control," Ethan shouted, I could see how much he wanted to stop but kept going anyway.

"Hey, you know, that's funny. I've actually tried something like this one time using a heart monitor and lacrosse balls," Stiles said. "But you're right, beating the living crap out of him is probably a lot better."

"That's actually the plan? You kick my ass until I roar?" Scott groaned out, blood coming out of his mouth as he spoke.

The twins kept taunting Scott and trying their best to get him to change. Scott was still human because he was too scared to change. Eventually they asked what would happen if he did and he revealed that he was afraid he'd turn into Peter. That made Aiden start absolutely pounding on him.

I tried to tear myself out of Stiles' grip, but he actually wrapped his arms around me and refused to let me go. I wanted to scream at him, but Ethan seemed to get it. He moved over and grabbed Aiden's arm. He made him let go of Scott and I shoved Stiles off of me so I could get to Scott.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay? Hey, baby, you're bleeding," I said, helping him sit up and start healing from the beating. "Are you breathing?"

What? I'm sure I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again: I have a really strong mommy gene, okay?

…

We all made our way to the trail where the den was. Apparently a jogger found a bear trap on one of the public trails and almost got caught in it. Sheriff Stilinski said that it had to be Mr. Tate so we knew that we had to leap into action.

"Anyone else think we might be doing more harm than good?" Lydia asked from her spot between Stiles and me.

"We're trying to keep a father from killing his own daughter," I said. "This has to be helping."

"Actually, we're trying to keep a guy from killing a coyote who is actually his daughter, who we don't know how to change from a coyote back to his daughter," Isaac said, adding details that we all sort of left out.

"And again with the not helping," Stiles remarked, smirking over at Isaac and he flipped him off.

"Okay, did you bring it, Allison?" Scott asked, trying his best to bring all of us back to the situation at hand.

Sudden gunshots drew all of our attention toward the distance. Before we could even ask about them, Scott was on his bike speeding towards the sound. Allison and Isaac then started running after him, Allison taking the tranquilizer with her.

"Wait, wait. Wait! Wait! I want the woods cleared of hikers, joggers, anybody else who might be on those trails," Stiles shouted after them, but I knew they were too far gone to hear him.

I heard his phone ringing, but he was too riled up to get it. I reached into his pants pocket and grabbed the phone out of it.

"Hello?"

"Scarlet, the coyote broke into the Tate house and took a doll. Does that mean something?" his dad asked, going along with the fact that I answered the phone.

"She took the doll again? What the hell is so important about that doll?" I asked, more to myself and the others than the Sheriff.

"I don't know, but listen to me. There are traps all over those woods; near the trails, probably near the car crash, and Tate is out there with a rifle. I want you to stay out of those woods and make sure my son does the same," he instructed. "Do you understand?"

"Wait, did you just say something about the doll?" Stiles asked, turning to face me.

"I'll do my best, Sheriff," I said before handing Stiles his phone back.

I did as he asked and waited for him to respond. "Stiles, what are you getting at?"

I heard a gunshot and grabbed Stiles' hand in mine while I scooted over closer to Lydia. I wanted them close because I couldn't get close to the others. I just hoped that they were being safe even though I knew they were being just as reckless as always.

"Alright, but why would it go all the way to the school and then all the way back to the house just for a doll? Once that was in the car wreck in the first place," Stiles pondered out loud. "We didn't find it in the coyote den."

"It likes the doll. Who cares?" Lydia asked, her frustration was almost palpable in the air around us.

"It likes that doll a lot," I said. "Enough to go on a hunt to find it, it must mean something to her."

"What kind of doll is it? Why's it so special?" Lydia asked Stiles and me.

"I don't know, it's a doll. It's got little arms, a big baby head and dead, soulless eyes. Actually, I took a picture," Stiles said, pulling his phone back out and looking through his pictures. "Here it is."

"Uhm, Stiles, Malia isn't holding that doll. Her little sister's holding it," I said, pointing at the smaller girl clutching the familiar doll.

"Oh my god, I know where she's going!" Stiles said before pressing his phone back to his ear as he walked quickly into the woods and Lydia and I followed. "Scott, it's me, you have to call me back as soon as you can. It wasn't Malia's doll, it was her sister's. Malia left it at the car for her sister. It's like bringing flowers to a grave or something. Okay, and we stole the flowers. So that's all she's trying to do, right. Bring the doll back to the grave, to the car wreck. That's where she's going. Lydia, Scarlet, and I are going to be there; meet us."

I was so focused on Stiles' rushed conversation with Scott's voicemail that I didn't notice where I'd stepped. If Lydia hadn't grabbed my arm and stilled my movements, I would've lost my foot in the bear trap. I was holding onto her for dear life as she tried to get Stiles' attention.

"Stiles?" she said calmly.

"Yeah?"

"Stiles!"

He finally turned around and I saw his eyebrows raise and meet his hairline. "Scarlet, don't move!"

"Okay, let's look for a warning label," Lydia said to Stiles, keeping her hand in mine but crouching down to look at the trap.

"Why would they put instructions on the bottom of the trap?" Stiles asked, his eyes not leaving mine.

"Because animals can't read," I answered. "Lydia, you're a fucking genius and I love you. I love you and your big, genius brain."

"We have a problem because I can't read either," Stiles said miserably.

"Stiles, baby, you don't need to read the instructions. When we the last time you ever used instructions? Am I right? You don't need them because you're a fucking genius too," I tried to reassure him as sweat started to bead along my head. "You can figure this out, baby, I know you can. You're the one who always figures stuff out for everyone. I know you can do it. Figure it out for me, baby. Be my Batman and save me."

I felt like a million years passed before he realized what to do. I jumped out of the trap and wrapped my entire body around him. He held me just as tightly as I was hold him and I felt Lydia wrap her arms around me from behind.

I let out a deep breath and said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you both so much, I love you."

I felt Stiles kissing every part of my head that he could reach and Lydia was holding me tight. Whenever I stopped shaking, I stepped out of their embraces and we went to the car wreck. Stiles was keeping a hard hold on me because he was afraid that I'd get hurt again. I knew by the looks he kept giving me that we were going to have to talk soon about things.

I heard a loud roar break through the forest around us and I knew that it was my brother. He'd finally gotten over his fears of changing.

"That's what I'm talking about! Way to go, Scott!" Stiles cheered, pumping his arm in the air.

…

It turned out that Scott's roar made Malia change back into a human. She was now home with her father who was bewildered but happy. Stiles and I were in his room, lying on his bed. He was on his back with my head on his stomach as I played around with his fingers.

"I can read again," he said out of the blue.

"Oh really, that's so good! Maybe working around it made the door close," I said, rolling over and pressing a kiss to his lips. "I'm so proud that you figured it out without instructions."

"I'm so scared that you're going to get hurt, and today just made that fear even stronger. I would go crazy without you," he said, rubbing his hand up and down my stomach as he spoke. "I don't want you to think that I think you're not strong, because I know you're so strong and so smart."

"I feel the same way about you. I don't ever want to make you think that you're not masculine or man enough to keep me safe, I know that you are. I just want you to realize that you're not as hard to destroy as the wolves are," I said, turning so we were lying face to face on our sides.

He laughed and leaned forward, pressing our foreheads against each other. I wanted to talk to him about Lily, but this moment was too perfect to ruin right now. I just wanted to lie in this moment and act like nothing was wrong. I just wanted to act like a normal teenage couple that was as in love with each other as we were.

* * *

**Thanks for reading, my loves. **


	3. Chapter 3

**These chapters are so long so it takes me a while to get them out. I'm sorry about that, but I'm trying my best. Don't give up on the story just yet, my loves.**

**There's a link to Scar's clothes on my profile, btw.**

* * *

Unlike my moronic brother and my idiotic boyfriend, I didn't get up a midnight to prank Coach Finstock. Stiles blew up my phone trying to convince me, but I just turned it off and curled up in my warm bed. I woke up at normal time and got myself ready for school before rolling Scott into the floor.

"It's time to get up for school," I said, putting in my earrings as I watched him scramble around on the floor. "You shouldn't have went to the school with Stiles so late last night. We've got school today!"

"But you know how much Coach loves it when we mess with him," he laughed, getting up and heading to the bathroom.

I laughed and grabbed my backpack before heading outside. I saw Allison waiting in the driveway, but Isaac already left so I was confused. I walked up to the driver's side window and waited for her to roll it down.

"What's up? Isaac already left this morning," I said her.

"I came to pick you up, actually. I need someone to talk to and Lydia isn't answering her phone," Allison told me. "Unless you're waiting for Stiles to pick you up or something."

"No, he's getting as much sleep as he can. He and Scott pranked Coach Finstock for Mischief Night last night," I explained as I got into the passenger seat.

She smiled and laughed, "How long have they been doing that to him?"

"Since we were freshmen, I think. Today's Finstock's birthday so it's special to them or something," I told her. "I don't really get it, he just gets even more angry than usual."

"Okay, I don't mean to be rude and change the subject, but I have to talk about it to someone," she said all of a sudden. "I really, really, really like Isaac and I don't know what to do!"

"Girl, you're allowed to like other boys. If you like Isaac, I think that's great," I told her. "I know you want to hold onto Scott because he's your first love, I get that, but sometimes things don't work out the way we want them to."

"I feel terrible because it's Isaac, the boy who's living in the house with my ex-boyfriend," she told me, turning into the parking lot. "Does it bother Scott?"

"A little bit, but I don't think he's going to be too torn up," I told her. "Between you and me, I think he has a little crush on Mr. Yukimura's daughter."

"Kira?" Allison asked defensively as we walked into school. "Well, she's better than some psychotic girl that's going to hurt him."

"Oh yeah, I'd hate for my brother to get involved with a psycho," I said. Then I smiled and added, "Like the ones with finger daggers, an arsenal of weaponry specialized for werewolves in their house, and an entire family that's hell-bent on killing him. I'd hate for that to happen… Oh wait…"

"Shut up," she laughed, elbowing me before going over to inform Lydia of what she'd told me.

I saw Stiles and Scott standing with the twins so I made my way over to them. Stiles seemed to be completely flabbergasted by what the twins were saying, but that wasn't anything new. He had a tendency to be overdramatic a lot.

"You came to us for help," Aiden seemed to be trying to convince Scott of something. "And we helped you."

"You beat his face into a bloody pulp. That's not helping!" Stiles shouted, talking dramatically with his hands as usual. "In my opinion, that's actually counter-productive."

It clicked in my head that they were trying to join Scott's pack. I mean, I didn't really _want _them in Scott's pack, but if Lydia trusted them, they couldn't be that bad. And they did try to help Scott the other night, even if it wasn't the most conventional way.

"Why would I say yes?" Scott asked, always charting out the pros and the cons.

"We'd add strength; we'd make you more powerful," Aiden tried his best to reason with Scott. "There's no reason to say no."

"I can think of one, like, the two of you holding Derek's claws while Kali impaled Boyd on them," Isaac said, making me jump because I hadn't realized he was there. "In fact, I don't know why we're not impaling them right now."

Aiden bristled instantly and prepped himself for a fight with him. "You want to try?"

"Hey, we're in front of the school right now. Don't do anything stupid," I said, clutching Isaac's hand and standing in between him and Aiden. "None of us trust them, but that doesn't mean we need to cause a scene."

"Sorry, but they don't trust you and neither do I," Scott told the twins finally.

I hated leaving them alone and vulnerable, but then I remembered what Boyd looked like. I remembered all the things that they did. I huffed and walked away from them, ignoring Ethan's hurt look, and followed the boys into the school.

I forgot what today was because of the little interaction, but when I walked into the school I was reminded. There was complete chaos brewing inside. Toilet paper rolls were scattered all over the floor, jack-o-lanterns were stuck to random lockers, and random kids were shrieking as they ran through the hall.

I heard Stiles say something about someone hitting him in the face, but I didn't hear what. I kissed his cheek before heading over to Lily. I figured out little fight was just a fluke and we were going to be fine now. I was almost at her locker with her when I saw that Hailey was already there.

"Oh wow, you really need to stop showing up places. Lily said that she didn't want to be your friend anymore," Hailey said patronizingly. "Go be with your other besties, Allison and Lydia."

"Since when does she speak for you, Lily?" I asked, talking to her and only her. "I just wanted to apologize to you about it. I have stuff to tell you."

"No, I'm going to hang out with Hailey. She doesn't cut me out of her life and she got me a date with Alexa Danvers," Lily said. When she saw the blank look on my face, she explained, "She's the girl I've had a crush on since the beginning of the year. You were just too wrapped up in the 'Scarlet Show' to see anything else."

"Lily, we've been best friends since kindergarten. How can you end an eleven year long friendship like this?" I was practically begging her at this point, but I couldn't help it.

"I think this break has been coming for a while now," she told me, completely void of emotion. "I'll see you, Scarlet."

I wanted to go to the bathroom and have a breakdown, but I couldn't. I would be late to class and something tells me that I wanted to see Finstock's reaction to Scott and Stiles' prank. I took a deep breath and turned away from them, walking to class with the same held breath.

As soon as I sat in my seat, I let the breath out with a couple of tears. I closed my eyes tightly and tried to ignore them. I felt someone touch my arm and opened my eyes to see Stiles crouching beside my desk. I didn't want to ruin his Mischief Day, so I just shook my head.

"Hey, it's nothing. I just bit my tongue." The lie was so clear in my voice I knew there was no way Stiles was going to fall for it.

I saw in his eyes that he wanted to argue, but he knew how stubborn I was. "Okay, but only because I know you're not going to do a damn thing you don't want to which includes telling me what's wrong with you."

He hugged me as much as he could with the bar of my desk between us. I kissed his forehead right as he pulled away. I heard rustling in the Coach's office and knew that he was looking for the prank. I had no idea what it was, but I'm sure it was going to piss him off.

Stiles took his seat and grinned over at Scott before winking at me. Then I heard a loud crash that made the boys start to smile even bigger. When I heard yet another crash, they started to laugh.

"Son of a bitch! Mischief Night, Devil's Night; I don't care what you call it. You little punks are evil! You think it's funny ever Halloween my house gets egged? A man's house is supposed to be a castle, but mine's a freakin' omelet right now," the Coach was ranting as he walked into the room with us. Then he saw the wrapped box sitting on his desk. "Oh, this? We're going to do this again? I don't think so!"

He picked up the box and smashed it onto the ground. I heard glass breaking inside and craned my neck to see what was inside of it. Coach bent down and picked up a piece of the mug that said "#1 Coach" with his picture on it. When he read the card, he found out that it was a birthday present from Greenberg.

I glanced back at the lacrosse player that was more often than not the butt of Coach Finstock's jokes. I laughed along with the rest of the kids, but I sort of felt sorry for him. I mean, the poor kid put a lot of effort into the mug and Coach just smashed it on the ground.

"Why'd he freak out about a wrapped present?" I whispered to Stiles as Coach ranted to the janitor while he cleaned up the mess.

"Scott and I may or may not have taken all the screws out of the shelves on his walls and his desk chair, placed them in a wrapped box, and then rigged the shelves to fall when he picked it up. The chair then fell when he sat in it," Stiles whispered back, grinning so big that his dimples flashed adorably. "You missed a fun night, babe."

"I'm sure you boys had a good guys' night without me," I told him. "One McCall was enough for Mischief Night, trust me. My bed was good enough for me."

…

"I like your shirt, by the way," Stiles said after class ended and we were at my locker.

"Considering you were the one who got it for me, I'd say you do," I told him, opening my locker and shrieking when a snake fell out onto my feet.

I didn't scream as loudly as Stiles did, which made me happy. When I inspected it further, I saw that it was one of those fake ones that you could buy at the dollar store. I heard laughing behind me and turned to see Lydia and Allison watching us.

"Did you put that in my locker?" I asked them, smiling as I picked it up and tossed it to Stiles. "That was so sneaky, I love it!"

"Yeah, I so didn't almost release my bladder on myself or anything," Stiles told them, wrapping an arm around me as he spoke. "Super sneaky, guys."

Lydia and Allison slapped their palms together and I shrugged out of Stiles' embrace to hug them. I'd never been pranked on Mischief Night before. I threatened the boys every year since we started doing it that if they pranked me I'd cut of an important part of their anatomy.

…

I had just left my Calculus class when I saw all the police officers in the school. I saw a familiar set of red curls and ran up to Lydia. I knew better than to think that this was just a drill, there were way too many people here for it just to be Mischief Night prank prevention thing.

I saw Isaac and Allison a little ways down the hall and Isaac gestured to the empty classroom beside him. I grabbed Lydia's hand and stealthily avoided all the cops to go inside with them. When we walked in, I saw that Stiles was already in there with them.

"Barrow went after kids with glowing eyes? He said those exact words?" Isaac asked Stiles after he'd told us what his father told him.

"Yeah, and no one knows what woke him up from the anesthesia. Just that when they opened him up, they found a tumor full of live flies, which in any other circumstance would be all kinds of awesome," he answered, making me roll my eyes.

"Did you say flies?" Lydia asked from beside of me, clutching my hand tighter.

"Lydia, what's wrong?" I asked, turning to face her.

"All day I have been hearing this sound," she said slowly, fear clouding her face. "It's like this buzzing noise."

"Like the sound of flies?" Allison asked even though we all knew what her answer was going to be.

"Exactly like the sound of flies."

…

We all broke apart soon after that when an officer came into the room and told us that we needed to get to our classes. I looked around and couldn't see Scott anywhere which I knew from experience meant he was probably doing something completely reckless and stupid.

Stiles, Lydia, and I went on the search for him while Allison and Isaac went to search the bestiary for cases of flies incased in stomach tumors. I still couldn't get over the twinge of disgust at that thought, it made me want to vomit all over the place. I didn't like bugs and I didn't like internal organs, and the combination of both made my skin crawl.

Scott was too interested in what was happening in Mr. Yukimura's classroom that we all scared him.

"Sorry, man," Stiles said. "Where the hell have you been?"

A group of officers walked past us and straight out the doors. "The police are leaving! Why are they leaving?"

Scott seemed so confused when he said, "The police?"

"They must've cleared the building and grounds," I said, watching as I heard Lydia's breathing speed up. "Barrow isn't here."

"Who's that? What are you guys-?" Scott tried to ask again, but Lydia cut him off.

"He has to be here," she said, an eerie calm coloring her voice. "That sound, the buzzing, I've been hearing? It's getting louder."

"How loud, Lydia?" I asked, standing in front of her and holding onto her shoulders as I rubbed her shoulders to comfort her.

"Hey, dad! Dad!" Stiles shouted as the Sheriff walked by us.

He said something to the officer beside him before heading over to stand with us. "Yeah?"

"You can't leave yet," Stiles told him.

"We got an eyewitness that puts Barrow by the train station five minutes ago," he replied, checking his watch. "We have to go before he gets away again."

Agent McCall stopped beside us and smiled at me before grabbing the Sheriff's arm. "Let's go, Stilinski."

He tried to walk away from Stiles and the rest of us, but Stiles reach out and grabbed his arm. He walked with his father over to an empty part of the hallway. That meant that I was standing with Lydia, Scott, and my father.

"So, how are you, Scarlet? We haven't gotten to talk since I've been in," he said, smiling over at me and making me cross my arms over my chest.

"Yeah, I've had things to do and you've slipped my mind," I told him, looking over at Stiles and his father. "I guess it's genetic."

I know he knew exactly what I was talking about. When I was younger, I used to be in a dance class with Lily and we did these little shows all the time. I had a huge solo in one of them and I called him to invite him to it, but he never showed.

When I called him the next day, he said that he'd had something to do and the show slipped his mind. As I got older, that was his excuse for everything. Eventually I learned that that meant he was drinking and forgot because he got so hammered.

"We're putting the school under a lockdown until 3:00," Sheriff announced, drawing attention over to him. "Nobody comes in, nobody goes out."

"Scarlet, I still want to talk to you, but…" dad said, looking at me.

"You've got things to do."

…

"He just wants to talk to you about everything," mom said. "He wants to make it right with you and Scott, but you don't have to let him."

I sighed and nodded, but I knew that she was right. She came here to bring Scott some of Barrow's things so he could try and find him by scent.

She grabbed Scott by his shoulders and locked her eyes on his. "Promise me that you'll be careful, I looked right in this guy's eyes. It was completely terrifying."

"Yeah," he said, kissing her forehead. "Mom, I promise I will. Okay?"

She looked over at me and hugged me close before she said. "Okay, I trust both of you. I love you both, be as safe as you can recklessly be."

I hugged Scott tightly around the neck after mom left. He'd already told me that he was going to find Isaac, Aiden, and Ethan and search for Barrow by scent. The thought of him and Isaac being alone with the twins scared me enough without adding the psychopath who had a tendency to kill kids with glowing eyes.

"I promise that I'm going to be fine. All of us are going to be okay," he said after we'd let go. Then he held up a pinky to me, "I pinky promise, okay?"

I laughed and hooked my pinky around his, bending them together. "You know that this is completely legitimate. Once you commit to it, you have to follow it through."

We parted ways on that note and I made my way upstairs to meet everyone else. Stiles texted me the number of the classroom that they were meeting in so I made my way into an old home economics' room on the main floor.

"I looked through the Bestiary, but I couldn't really read any of it. None of the pictures were helpful so I figured I'd ask you," Allison said to Lydia. "It could take me all night even if I know what I'm looking for."

"Just remember that the archaic Latin word for fly is 'musca' so look for it," Lydia instructed.

"Musca, got it," Allison repeated before going over to the window and maneuvering herself out of it and running to her house.

"Okay, where do we need to start?" I asked after Allison was gone.

"Upstairs," Stiles answered. Then he glanced at his watch and added, "We gotta go, it's already 2:35."

…

We'd made our way through most of the classrooms upstairs and saw no sign of Barrow. I looked at the clock on the wall to see that it was getting closer to three way too fast.

"Scott and Isaac are in the basement with the twins right now and we're upstairs," I said, thinking about how much school we had to cover. "The police got the main floor, which I'm sure they covered well."

I walked across the hallway with Lydia and Stiles into the art room. I glanced across the room and saw a bunch of student drawings sticking to the wall. There were ones of people, landscapes, and one that some kid that had to be demented because it was a freakin' mushroom cloud.

Mushroom clouds were so weird, it was an explosive. Only total basket-cases drew that kind of stuff, the kind that went into mental asylums. Mental patients…. Oh my god.

"Guys, all the wolves are in the boiler room right now," I shouted, making them both stare at me like I was complete lunatic.

"Yes, that would be what you just said a couple of seconds ago, baby," Stiles said, walking up to me and rubbing his hands up and down my arms.

I brushed his hands off of me and tied to voice my idea again. "No, listen to me, dammit! All the ones with glowing eyes are in the basement. And we're looking for a man who likes to blow up kids with glowing eyes!"

"Oh my god! An engineer could use a boiler room to blow up the whole school," Stiles said after he realized where I was going with my thought.

"We have to get the out of there before it explodes!" Lydia exclaimed as she got on the same page that we were on.

"Not just them, we have to get everyone out of here before it becomes a grenade," I told her.

We made our way out into the hallway and I saw Coach Finstock standing by himself. He must've been put on student duty and was avoiding it. Then I saw something red right next to him and knew how to get all of the kids out of the school.

"Hey Coach, can you scooch over just a little bit?" I asked him, leaving Lydia and Stiles behind me.

He gave me a skeptical look before scooting over to the side. I took a deep breath and said a little prayer before I did the first illegal thing I've ever done solo. I pulled the fire alarm and winced when the shrill sound of it started echoing through the school.

"McCall, pulling a fire alarm on Mischief Night is one thing, but doing it when there's a mass murder spotted nearby is insane!" Coach said, but he was quickly be drowned out by the kids running out of the school. "You're so going to get det-…"

He didn't get to finish that because he was too far down the hallway. To me that meant that I didn't have detention because he didn't finish the word. I mean, I wouldn't have gone tonight anyway but still.

I looked over at Lydia and Stiles and saw that they were both staring at me in shock. That was understandable, I might do slightly illegal things with other people, but I never do bad things on my own. Stiles came up to me quickly and pressed his lips against mine roughly.

When we parted he breathed out, "I seriously love you so much right now! You're so damn clever, and that rule breaking was surprisingly sexy."

I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck, standing on my tiptoes to kiss him again. Before I could, Lydia said, "Not that I don't love you both, but we have bigger problems right now. Can you recreate the Titanic once we save the guys?"

I knew she was right and, as much as I hated to, I pulled myself out of Stiles' embrace. We all made our way down to the basement and met the guys halfway on the main floor.

"We didn't find anything down there," Aiden told us.

"Not even a scent," Scott added in defeat.

"It's 3 o'clock now, so school's over. If there was a bomb, wouldn't he have set it off by now?" Stiles asked, making the werewolves look at us with raised brows.

"All of you were downstairs in the boiler room together, all of you with glowing eyes. I thought that maybe Barrow was trying to kill all of you," I explained. "And then Stiles said that he wouldn't have any trouble making a bomb down there to blow up the whole school. But then I pulled a fire alarm, in front of Finstock may I add, and get everyone out."

"Okay, if it's 3 o'clock and the bomb hasn't gone off, does that mean that everybody's safe outside?" Aiden asked after I finished my story.

It was like all of us were connected because we all looked at Lydia at almost the same time. Her face looked vaguely like a deer caught in headlights when she said, "I don't know."

…

By 3:30 everyone was out of school and safe, hopefully. I went home with Stiles after politely declining a dinner invitation to the Yukirmura's house. Mr. Yukimura invited Scott and me over to thank us for saving Kira, but I let Scott go solo because I knew he had a thing for her. Plus it gave me some alone time with my boyfriend that I very much wanted.

We walked into his house and shut the door behind us before I threw myself at him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and started kissing him. He caught up quickly and held my waist in his hands. He tried to walk me backwards up the stairs to his room, but I almost fell.

"Jump," he said through his laughter.

I did as he instructed and was actually surprised when he caught me. I wrapped my legs around his waist and was still laughing when I pressed our lips together again. By the time we got to his door, we were really heated. I didn't want to do _everything_ right now, but I wanted to do something.

With laughter and rushed movements on both our parts, we finally got his door open. I moved my mouth from his to laugh and saw all of the red string strung around his room. There were pictures and case files everywhere. Stiles had never been a clean freak, but this was weird even for him.

"Stiles, why is there string all around your room and cases on your walls?" I asked, pulling his face away from my neck to make up look at me.

His eyes were dilated and his lips were puffy. It made me want to ignore everything going on and go back to making out with him, but I knew I couldn't do that right now. He groaned and I had to bite my lip to stop myself from echoing it in frustration.

"They're the different stages of the investigations," he said, letting me feet hit the floor and bending to pick up my scarf that he'd taken off earlier. "So, green is solved, yellow is to be determined, and blue's just a pretty color."

I looked around and didn't see any of those colors other than the spools of them sitting on his desk. "What does red mean?"

"Unsolved."

"You only have red string," I said, trying to smooth down his hair that I'd messed up.

He looked over at me with an annoyed expression and said, "Yes, I'm aware of that. Thank you for your observation, Captain Obvious."

"You're welcome, Sergeant Smartass," I replied, saluting him with my tongue stuck out.

I kicked my shoes off before going over to lay back on his bed. He started at me for a moment before coming over and sitting by me. I rolled my eyes, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to lay down with me. I maneuvered myself so I could rest my head on his chest, and he slowly started to play with my hair as he got more comfortable with our position.

"I can't believe I almost got detention for pulling a fire alarm when I was wrong," I said later on. "That was so stupid! I was completely wrong."

"No, you weren't stupid. We all agreed on your theory, it was really smart actually. You're really smart," he said, making me remember the first time we ever kissed. "I know that Barrow was there, you and Lydia both had a feeling and I trust your feelings."

"I'm not a Banshee, Stiles. I'm just a confused teenager with a werewolf twin brother, a banshee and a hunter as best friends, my other best friend won't even talk to me, and a boyfriend who likes red string," I said, poking him in the stomach.

"You and Lily aren't talking? What happened?" Stiles asked, stilling his movements in my hair. "Is that why you were crying in class today?"

"Yeah, she says that I don't include her in my life enough anymore. She's friends with Hailey Daniels now," I said, blinking rapidly to stop from crying. "Did you know that she had a crush on Alexa Danvers all year? I didn't and that makes me a totally shitty best friend. I don't blame her, I wouldn't want to be my friend either."

"Hey, that's so not true. You're great and trying your best to keep everybody safe and sound," Stiles said, sitting up and bringing me with him. "Lily's stupid if she thinks that you can be replaced by Hailey Daniels."

I wiped my eyes clumsily until Stiles moved my hands out of the way and wiped my face with his thumbs. I moved forward and hugged him as much as I could with our position on the bed. "Thank you so much for being so amazing. I love you."

"I love you too," he said as he kissed the side of my head. Then he reached over onto his dresser and uncapped a marker, smelled it, and said, "Oh my god, we have to go back to the school. I know why we couldn't find Barrow."

…

I hated being in the school when it was dark and empty. I hated being in the school even more when there could be a psycho mass-murderer inside with us. I was probably cutting off the circulation to Stiles' hand with how hard I was holding it, but he didn't say anything so I kept squeezing.

He led us upstairs and into the chemistry classroom. I hadn't been in here since last term when Mr. Harris died, it was still weird. I hated it before, and I hated it now. There were apparently a lot of things associated with this school that I hated.

"So what are we looking for in here?" I asked after he let go of me and made his way over to the chemical closet. He turned the knob and the door pushed open, "That was supposed to be locked."

"Yeah, I know," he said. Then he paused for a second and asked, "Do you notice anything else that's off about this room?"

The harsh smell of chemicals burned my nose and everything clicked. "They wouldn't have been able to catch his scent with all of those chemicals spilled out in there."

We walked further into the office and I was watching the floor to avoid stepping into the chemicals. I really liked this shoes, I didn't want to bleach them or melt them or whatever the chemical on the floor did.

"He was here, performing minor surgery on himself," Stiles said, pointing to the blood and staples on the floor. "You and Lydia were right."

"If we were right about him, why do I feel like this?" I asked, wrapping my arms around my middle and squeezing myself like I was holding myself together.

He came over to me and rubbed my shoulders. "Probably because he was here to kill somebody, baby."

I'm sure he meant that as something sweet, but he was actually just really funny. He was so awkward and dorky, but he was all mine.

"Who did he want to kill so badly?" I asked as I walked back out into the classroom because the chemical smell was starting to make me a little bit dizzy.

Stiles was walking around the classroom when he said, "Scar, what are those numbers on the board?"

I walked over to where he was standing and saw that there were three numbers written in a column. I looked at them for a second, completely baffled, until I remembered what room we were standing in.

"Those are the atomic numbers of chemicals on the periodic table," I said, glancing over at the big one painted onto the wall by the window.

"Is it a formula or something?" Stiles asked, trying to figure out why they were the only thing written on the board. "I don't understand why there's only three things with no instructions."

"It's not an equation, there aren't any signs or anything," I said, walking over to the periodic table on the wall and looked at the numbers. "Hey, write the letter I tell you by the number. 19 is K, 53 is I, and 88 is Ra."

"They spell out Kira," Stiles said in a quiet voice.

…

"Hey mom, I really just wanted to hear you voice to see if you were okay," I said as I got into Stiles' Jeep. "It's been a wild day."

"Yeah, Scott told me about the craziness at the school. Even if you're with all those werewolves, a school lockdown still scares me," she said. I heard muffled voices in the background before she said, "Work calls, I love you. Please be careful, okay'? And watch out for your brother, Stiles, and everyone else."

"You know I will, mom. I love you," I said before I hung up and put my phone back into my backpack. "What are we going to do now?"

"We have to get to Kira's house and warn her and Scott," he told me. "Oh yeah, tell your mom thank you for looking out for me, I don't tell her enough."

I didn't even ask how he knew where Kira lived, I was afraid of the answer. I loved him, but sometimes I seriously wondered about his mental wellbeing.

I saw someone laying out on the ground in front of the house. As soon as we got close enough and I saw that it was Scott, I was out of the Jeep before he was even parked. I skidded to the ground next to him, tearing my knees up but that was the least of my worries.

"Scotty, are you okay? Hey, wake up," I said, pulling his head into my lap and brushing his hair out of his face. "Come on, wake up."

He groaned and started moving his body slowly. When he opened his eyes, I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding. I seemed to be doing that more often than not lately and I didn't like it.

He sat up quickly and jumped to his feet. "Barrow, he took Kira! We have to go get her!"

I had my phone out calling Lydia before I even realized it. If anyone could find Kira, it was going to be her. She had to learn how to use her powers. About five minutes later, she pulled in behind Stiles' Jeep and ran over to us. She fussed about the scraps on my knees for a second.

"Lydia, Scar's fine. We have to focus and find Kira," Scott said, snapping her attention straight up to him. He was out alpha, after all. "We have to think of something. He's going to kill her."

"I knew he was here. How did I know that?" Lydia asked, her face really pale and her eyes scared.

"Because you heard the flies, right?" Stiles asked, trying to soothe her.

"Okay, what do you hear now, Lydia?" I asked.

"Nothing. I feel like I can do this, but I don't know what to do. It's like it's on the tip of my tongue and I don't know how to trigger it," Lydia was borderline hysterical. "I just, I swear to God, it literally makes me want to scream."

"Then scream," I told her. "Scream, Lydia."

I knew her screams were loud from previous experience, but I still clutched my ears when she let it out. I saw Scott hit his knees and Stiles cover his ears. When she finally stopped, her face looked fierce and brave. She was finally gaining confidence in her skills.

"I haven't been hearing flies all day, I've been hearing electricity," she finally said.

"Wait a second, Barrow was an electrical engineer," Stiles said, making me remember all the manila folders on his desk. "He used to work at a power substation."

"Lydia, do you think you could find the substation?" I asked.

"Yes, I know I can," she said confidently.

…

We pulled up in front of the substation. Stiles and Scott got out of the front seats, but when Lydia and I tried to get out, they refused. Scott had already ran ahead, but Stiles was still back with us.

"Okay, wait here. Just wait for the cops to come," he said, kissing my forehead and nodding to Lydia.

"There's no way in hell I'm letting you go in there, guns blazing, without me," I said, trying to open the door, but Lydia held me back.

"Why do we have to wait here?" she asked.

"Because I've only got one bat," he said, kissing me once more before running after Scott.

Dammit, I still hated it when he left me behind. But at least I had Lydia this time.

* * *

**Can I get five reviews before the next chapter?**


	4. Chapter 4

**This chapter is significantly shorter than the others, but I'm making Scarlet her own person. I'm giving her relationships with other people than Stiles and Scott. I hope it's still okay.**

**I have a link to Scarlet's blacklight party outfit on my profile in the clothes link. Go check them out, babes. **

* * *

As much as I thought waiting outside sucked, it sucked even harder to go to the police station without seeing any of the action. I was sitting between Scott and Lydia in the chairs inside the office they'd given Agent McCall. I wish I could say this was the first time I'd gotten brought to the police station with Scott and Stiles, but that would be a lie.

I kind of felt sorry for Kira, she really had no idea what she was in the middle of now. Granted, I didn't know what we were in the middle of right now either, but I still knew more than she did. I was really curious what Lydia and I missed in that substation.

"So when did you get there?" Agent McCall asked, trying to figure out what happened and why there was a dead man.

"At the same time," Stiles answered and I knew exactly where he was going, he was going to try and confuse Agent McCall.

"At the same time as who?" he asked, not catching on to Stiles' antics just yet.

"At the same time as me," Scott answered, taking the attention away from Stiles and over to him.

"By coincidence?"

"What do you mean coincidence?" Stiles asked.

"That's what I'm asking you. The two of you arrived at the same time," Agent McCall said, trying to make sense of Stiles and Scott's story. "Was that a coincidence?"

"Are you asking me?" Scott was trying his best to not start laughing.

"I think he's asking me," Stiles said, hitting Scott in the chest with the back of his hand.

"No, I think he's asking both of you guys," I said, almost losing it when I saw Sheriff Stilinski cover his mouth with his hand to block his laughter.

"Let me make everything absolutely clear. Barrow was hiding in the chemistry closet at the school, someone left him a coded message on the blackboard telling him to kill Kira. Then Barrow took Kira to the power substation and tied her up with the intent of electrocuting her, which, in conclusion, blacked out the entire town," Agent McCall said, summing up the entire night."

Wait- someone wrote the message for Barrow on the board? I thought he wrote it down to tease all of us. Well, that was an interesting turn of events.

"That sounds about right," Stiles agreed.

"How did you know he'd take her take her to a power station?" Agent McCall asked, trying to find something to hold onto in our game.

"Barrow as an electrical engineer, where else would he take her?" Stiles asked, pulling out the sass and throwing it at him.

"That's one hell of a deduction there, Stiles." His frustration finally bubbled all the way to the surface.

"Yeah, what can I say? I take after my pops," Stiles said, pointing at his dad and winking. "He's in law enforcement."

That was Sheriff Stilinski's undoing. He laughed out loud and tried his best to cover it with a cough, but I knew the truth. His laughter made me start giggling, but one look from Agent McCall made me look down at my lap.

"Stiles, just, uh…Just answer the man," Sheriff Stilinski said after he'd collected himself.

"We made a good guess."

Agent McCall tired of questioning Stiles and moved onto Scott and Kira. "What were the two of you doing?"

"Eating pizza." 'Eating sushi."

"Eating sushi." "Eating pizza."

"Eating both sushi and pizza.'

The spoke at the same time and quickly had to fix it. I'm sure that it wasn't believable and my thought was soon proven when my _father_ spoke.

"Do you believe this, Stilinski?"

"To be honest, I haven't believed a word that Stiles has said since he learned how to speak," the Sheriff said, making Stiles shrug. "But I think these kids found themselves in the right place at the right time and that girl sitting there is very lucky for it."

"Kira, is that how you remember it?"

All of us looked over at Kira, hoping and praying that she agreed with all of us. I was surprised that Lydia and I hadn't been questioned, but I'm sure he knew all of us were going to stick together.

"Yes," she said, trying her best to not look like she was too nervous. "Could I get my phone back now?"

"Sorry, but no, it's evidence," he told her. "Kira, a deputy is going to take you home, but we'll need you to fill out some paperwork first."

We took that as our dismissal, but Agent McCall asked Scott and me to stay behind. I let out an over dramatic sigh and sat back down in my seat.

"I don't know why you guys are lying or why Stilinski is content to listen to this crap; but try and remember something. If half this story about Barrow is true, then not only did someone help set him loose, but he was a pawn in their little game. A mass murderer is bad enough. A mass murderer being controlled by someone? Far worse."

"We get it," I said, standing up and taking Scott's arm in my hand. "We've got to go, it's a school night."

**…**

The next morning, I wasn't as tired as I thought I would be. I woke up and got dressed quickly, leaving me with enough time to get breakfast with mom. She called in to work and told them she was going to be a bit late, we definitely needed some girl time.

"Okay, lay it on me. What's happening that you need to talk to me about?" mom asked as we sat down in the restaurant.

"Lily and I aren't best friends anymore," I said, figuring I'd start with the little things and work up to what I really wanted to talk to her about.

Her face was probably as shocked as mine was when Lily told me that. "What happened? Why aren't you guys friends anymore?"

"She told me that I didn't include her in my life enough," I answered.

"Sometimes it's better to not include her in your life. The last thing you want is for her to get hurt or something, right?" mom asked.

"I know, that's what I said to Stiles when we talked about it. I just thought that maybe you could give me a little bit more insight, you know?" I said, smiling at the server as they brought us our food.

"Lily knew what was going on in your life, she's been part of a bunch of it. It's sad that she doesn't want to be there anymore, but you can't dwell on it," mom advised. "You guys might fix it and get back to being friends, but then again, you might not."

The next thing I wanted to talk to mom about was a lot bigger than my friendship, or lack thereof. I had to seriously think about how I was going to go about asking this. It had to be well thought out.

"I want to get put on birth control," I blurted out. Well –so much for being well thought out.

Mom choked on her food and quickly took a drink of her pop. "What? Are you and Stiles planning on doing…_things_?"

"No! I just sort of thought that I should be ready if we were to do things," I reassured her. "I'm not going to do anything that I'm not ready for, and I'm definitely not ready for that."

"Oh, then I guess that's very responsible of you," she said as she slowly calmed down. "Okay, we'll get you a doctor's appointment and fix that. Just promise me that when you guys do do that, you're going to be safe and sure."

"I don't think I'm ever going to have to worry about Stiles doing something I don't want," I reassured her. "You know Stiles Stilinski as well as I do, and I know you trust him."

"That's the only thing saving you from a total meltdown on my part," she told me before taking another bite of her food. "I trust you and I trust Stiles and I trust you two together."

I could feel how hot my face was from the conversation. I'd been thinking about it since last night with Stiles in his room. We weren't even close to having sex, but I knew from Allison and Lydia that it just happened sometimes.

**…**

"So she walked through fucking electricity?" I asked in astonishment when Scott told me the story of what happened last night. "Like, without any flinching or burning or exploding or anything?"

"I need to talk to her about everything," Scott said, turning to walk down the hallway to her.

Stiles grabbed his arm quickly and made him stay where he was. "No, you need to remember that someone left a coded message telling Barrow to kill her."

"Which is why I need to talk to her," Scott sound exasperated when he spoke. "I need to know why that message was there."

"I agree with Stiles," I said, drawing both of their attention to me. "What if she's another one of those crazy monster things that go around murdering everyone in town?"

"But what if she's like me?" Scott was almost desperate when he said that.

"That girl walked through 1.21 gigawatts of electricity," Stiles said, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him a bit. "She's not like you!"

**…**

Since Mr. Harris was no longer alive, we'd been through a bunch of substitutes in biology class. I walked into class today and saw two things that were usual. The first was Mrs. Martin was standing behind the desk and the second was Aiden sitting in my seat by Lydia.

"Hello, Mrs. Martin," I smiled at her, waving before going and sitting at the table behind them. "Why are you sitting in my seat, Aiden?"

He ignored me and continued talking to Lydia. "Why's your mom teaching biology now? I thought we had Mr. Harris."

"Well, he used to be our teacher until he got a new occupation… being a human sacrifice," Lydia said, glaring at him. Then she turned around and smiled at me, "I really like your outfit today. It's a lot better than yesterday's."

"I wore that because it was Mischief Night," I explained to her, but I knew it was useless. "Thank you, though."

"Lydia, I didn't kill him! Why are you giving me the cold shoulder so much today?" Aiden asked, drawing her attention back to him.

"The other night, I helped save someone's life. That felt really great," she said, her face shining as she spoke. "And I look at you, and all I can think is that you helped kill Boyd. You're not just a bad boy, Aiden, you're a bad guy. I don't want to be with the bad guys."

I felt pure pride for her and her growth go through me. I almost couldn't believe that she was the same girl that acted like she didn't know who Scott and I were until he got good at lacrosse. The girl who thought that being smart made her uncool.

"Okay, let's all turn around and face the front," Mrs. Martin said, starting to teach class.

**…**

"Hey, Scarlet, what are you doing?" Danny asked me after classes ended for the day.

I shut my locker after I'd put up all my books and turned to look at him. "Nothing that I know of, my mom brought me this morning so I'm sort of just waiting for a ride."

"Do you want to come with me to buy some glow in the dark paint for my blacklight party tonight?" he asked.

"How are you having a blacklight party? The entire town is under a blackout," I said, leaning back against the lockers as I spoke.

"Aiden said that he had a way for me to have the party," he explained. "I want someone to go with me to get everything and Ethan's with Aiden so…"

"Yeah, I'll help you. As long as I'm invited to the party," I said as we walked out to his car together.

"Of course you're invited to the party," he laughed. "Everyone in the school is invited, pretty much. It's Halloween and I want to party!"

I felt that on an emotional level. I wanted to party too, no matter what was going on in my life. I knew it was probably really selfish, but I just wanted a night to myself. I wanted a night to complete go wild and have fun. I just really hoped that I could have it.

**…**

We'd just left the party supply store when I felt eyes on my back. I looked over my shoulder and thought I saw something shifting in the shadows, but there was nothing there. I sat the bags in the passenger seat before getting Danny's attention.

"Stiles just called me, I'm going to call him back really quick. I'll be right back," I told him before going over to the shadows.

I knew it was stupid to go investigate by myself, but I did it anyway. I figured I could hold my own better than Danny could. At least I knew about everything going on.

"Who's over here? Come out," I said quietly, trying to ignore the fear bubbling in the bottom of my stomach.

Out of nowhere, four things came stepping out of the shadows. They were men sized and coming right out of the ground, it seemed. I thought about screaming, but the last thing I wanted was for other people to get hurt.

"Who are you? What are you doing?" I asked quietly, glancing over my shoulder to find Danny, but he wasn't in sight.

One of them stepped forward, and before I could stop them, the grabbed the back if my head. A feeling of ice seeped into my entire body and I fell to the ground. The coldness filled my entire body and I lost consciousness.

**…**

"Scarlet, you need to wake up! I'm going to call your mom or Scott or Stiles or something, just wake up!" I heard Danny's hysterical voice breaking through my mind.

I struggling to open my eyes and saw him staring down at me. I was lying in the backseat of his car and he had my head in his lap. I took a deep breath before sitting up and trying my best to not fall over. I was freezing and my teeth were chattering so I pulled on the hoodie he held out to me. As I started to warm up, I started to remember what happened.

"What the hell happened to you? You went over to call Stiles, and then I came to check five minutes later and you were unconscious on the ground," he said, talking quickly.

"I'm okay, I guess I just passed out. I'm fine," I reassured him, trying to ignore the burning behind my ear. "Can we stop by my house and let me change before your party?"

"You just passed out on the sidewalk outside Party City and your only concern is looking good for the party?" he asked in surprise.

"Hell yes, I want to party my face off. If I pass out again, just drop me off at the hospital," I said, getting into the front seat as he got into the driver's seat.

He called Ethan and figured out where the party was and all those things while I got ready. I took a deep breath and clutched the sink in my hands. I have no idea what just attacked me, but I knew I needed to talk to the others about it.

I remembered the stinging behind my ear and grabbed a handheld mirror to check it out. I pulled my hair over one of my shoulders and turned my back to the big mirror. It looked like a backwards five and it was directly behind my ear.

I called Stiles' phone, but it went straight to voicemail. I sighed and tried again, but I got the same result. I cursed him creatively under my breath right as Danny pushed open the bathroom door.

"Do you know where Derek's loft is? That's where this party is happening," he said, eyeing my outfit. "Damn, you aren't taking any prisoners tonight, are you? Is Stiles okay with you dressing like this?"

"I just called him and he ignored it so I'm doing whatever I want," I said, pushing my hair off of my shoulder. "Let's go tear this up."

**…**

The loft looked amazing and I wasn't even going to question if Derek knew about the party or not. I was almost completely positive that he didn't. I didn't want to think about how pissed he was going to be.

I looked down at my phone once more and saw that Stiles had called me finally. I stepped out onto the balcony and called Stiles back. If it was any other situation, I would've held out. But I was too freaked.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Stilinski? When you're girlfriend calls you twice in a row and you don't answer, it better be a damn good reason," I screamed as soon as he picked up.

"Don't freak out on me right now, okay? I just had to cover Scott and Kira's back while they were sneaking into the police station to steal back Kira's phone because she had inappropriate pictures," he tried to explain, but I could hear that he was annoyed. "Alone, may I add, I had to lie to your dad."

"I'm fucking sorry that I had no idea you were breaking into the police station because no one tells me anything! I was with Danny when some fucking things came out of the shadows and attacked me! I have some sort of mark behind my ear and I don't know how it got there," I shouted back at him, anger burning through me. "I had to lie to Danny and recover from all of that alone and I think that's a hell of a lot worse than what you and to do!"

I hung up the phone and slid it into the pocket of my skirt before going into the party. It was in full swing and had a ton of lights flashing. I ran into the middle and saw Aiden. I thought about not doing it, but then I said fuck it.

"Hey, let me paint you!" I screamed at him, gripping his bicep.

He looked me up and down before yanking his shirt up over his head. "Only if I get to paint you."

I bit my bottom lip, grabbed his hand, and made my way over to the body paint station. Aiden's body was amazing, but I felt guilt surging through me. He had that _thing_ going on with Lydia and I was Stiles' girlfriend. But we weren't sleeping together or anything, we were just painting each other's naked torsos…

I smiled at him fleetingly before walking away from him. I shouldn't have done that and I felt like I needed to apologize to Lydia for it. I saw Scott standing at the door with Kira and Stiles. I started making my way over to him.

I was about to say hi when some slut in a pink wig pressed a kiss to Stiles' cheek. That made anger surge through me and I wanted to tear her hair out of her head by the roots. I stormed up to her and Stiles and looked at both of them with my hands on my hips.

"I know like hell you're not kissing my boyfriend right now!" I said, staring her down. "I swear to god if you don't get your nasty little hands off of him you won't have them anymore!"

She looked at me in surprise before rolling her eyes and walking away. I then looked at Stiles, Scott, and Kira who were both looking at me in total shock. Scott seemed to read my mind because he walked away with Kira to leave us alone.

"I saw you with Aiden and let her kiss me. Don't throw a fit," he said, holding up his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry that I wasn't there when you were hurt and I'm sorry that I let her kiss me and I'm sorry that I-"

"Shut up," I said, grabbing his hand and heading to the dance floor. "Let's dance!"

He smiled and held onto my waist like a lifeline. I draped one of my arms over his shoulder and tossed my head back. I glanced down at my stomach and saw that Aiden had painted me pretty well. Then I looked up at Stiles and saw the orange kiss on the side of his face.

I knew I had pink of my mouth and moved forward to cover the orange. I don't know what it was about tonight, but I was very territorial over Stiles. Once it was covered, I pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

"I like this side of you," he whispered in my ear. Then he nibbled on it and added, "It's really sexy."

Eventually I started to get thirsty from all the dancing. Stiles made his way over to the couches while I got us a drink. I grabbed two beers before heading over to him.

"Hey, do you have a bottle opener?" I asked, sitting partially on his lap to get away from the couple that was dry humping each other beside us.

He dug around in his pockets and pulled his keys out. I saw a glowing fingerprint on one of them grabbed it from him.

"Is this the key that you've been freaking out about?" I asked. When he nodded, I continued, "It has phosphors on it. That's what's making it glow; Danny told me about them earlier when we were buying the paint."

"How did I get that on my key? They've been in my pocket the whole time," he said, looking at it curiously.

"It's also in some chemicals," I said.

I opened up the beer and took a couple sips from it. Something lit behind Stiles' eyes and he jumped off of the couch. I looked at him in surprise, but he just shrugged me off.

"It's nothing, just stay here and have fun. I just remembered that I was going to help dad," he said, lying on the spot and I knew it.

He ran away from me faster than I could question him. I sat the beer on the table, my desire to be drunk was suddenly gone. I made my way through the party looking for Lydia, but I couldn't find her.

I slipped out of the blacklight party and out onto the balcony from earlier. I saw something shimmer in the shadows like earlier and then disappear like it was never there. I looked down at the ground and saw Lydia lying there.

"Lydia!" I screamed before running over to her.

I crouched down on the ground and held her close to me as she started to come around. Her teeth were chattering and she looked scared out of her mind. I realized that she must've been through what I'd gone through earlier.

"They came out of the dark," she whispered.

"I know, I had it happen to me earlier," I said, then I turned her head and saw that she had the backwards 5 behind her ear too. "I have the same mark on me."

Aiden came out of nowhere and helped me get her back into the party. I sat with her beside the heating vent and rubbed her arms while Aiden covered her up with a blanket.

A sudden loud noise made every look up at the DJ table. Derek was standing beside the DJ looking more pissed than I'd ever seen him. It took a second, but then everyone started running over each other to get out of the loft.

"Get her out of here," Aiden told Danny, pushing Lydia over to Danny and pushing them out of the loft along with everyone else.

As they were walking out, Scott and Kira ran inside and stood with us. Derek was slowly making his way over to us to start screaming when _they _appeared. The ninja things that attacked Lydia and I earlier.

"What the hell are they?" Scott asked all of us as he, Aiden, Isaac, and Derek came together.

None of us had a chance to answer him because the ninja things started fighting. Allison, Kira, and I stood together, all of our backs together, while the guys fought. I saw Derek snap one's neck, but it came right back up like nothing.

All of a sudden, all of them started moving towards Aiden. He looked back at all of us before he asked, "Guys, why are they all looking at me?"

Then one of them stepped forward and grabbed Aiden behind the head. His eyes lit up and Aiden fell to the ground, I'm sure that if I looked I would see that he had the same mark behind his ear that Lydia and I had.

Then they moved over to Scott. I made a move to run over to him only for Isaac to grab me and hold me to his body tightly. I fought him as hard as I could, but he wasn't letting me go. I saw Scott's eyes turn red and his fangs.

As soon as that happened, they all stepped back away from him. I stopped fighting against Isaac to watch them. It was like Scott was scaring them away or something. Then I saw the light hit one of them and he started smoking before they all just disappeared together.

"What the hell were those things?" Scott asked again, a little out of breath.

Isaac let go of me and turned to look at Allison before he said, "Your dad's 24 hours are up."

I knew I looked as confused as all of the others when he said that, but I was sure that they would explain.

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**You guys are great and I love each and every one of you. **


	5. Chapter 5

**I don't know if I like this chapter or not, it's weird to not have Stiles and Scarlet together all the time. Oh yeah, I also want to throw out there before anyone gets mad, Scarlet and Aiden are not and will never be a thing. They're just friends and Aiden likes getting her advice about Lydia. I like them being friends, I liked the twins' characters. **

**There's a new outfit on my page. **

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The story behind the things that attacked us wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped it would be. All he told us was that they'd attacked some of the Japanese people that he was trying to make a deal with. Mr. Argent survived and saved the life of some man named "Silverfinger" and he was where we'd get more information about the "demon warriors" as he called them.

"Okay, that's is a lot to take in. I think I'm going to go take Kira home," Scott said, making me remember that she was there. "Scar, do you have a ride? I know Danny brought you here."

"I'll take her home," Aiden volunteered.

"Uhm, I don't think that's the best idea…" Scott tried to argue, but I cut him off.

"I think I trust them, Scott. I mean, if they wanted to hurt me, they've had more than enough time to do it tonight," I said, stepping over to stand beside Aiden.

Scott look like he was at a loss for words for a second. Then he turned to Aiden, flashed his red alpha eyes, and said, "If you hurt her, I'll tear you apart. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, and I'll help him," Isaac added from his spot beside Allison.

I rolled my eyes at them, they were so protective! I wasn't lying when I said that I trusted the twins, I couldn't say why I did, but I did. There was something about the way Aiden was with me earlier in the night, how he just did what I asked to spite Stiles, but then he acted like it didn't happen.

"Let's go, mini McCall," Aiden said, tossing me his jacket as he pulled on a t-shirt.

I pulled the jacket on and pulled it tight around me as we went down to his bike. I'd never ridden on a bike with anyone other than Scott before, and I was excited to do so now. I pulled on the helmet he extended to me before getting on behind him and holding onto his waist.

When we stopped, I got off the bike and handed Aiden his helmet back. I went to pull of his jacket, but he held out his hand to stop me.

"Keep it, I'll get it back later. It's still cold and I don't think that outfit is going to keep you very warm," Aiden said, eyeing me up and down.

Something told me he was joking so I let it go. "Thank you for the ride and for letting me use you as a rebound when my boyfriend ignored me."

"Trust me, I know what it's like for the person you like to not be around," he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Lydia is really confused right now. Wouldn't you be? She's just now figuring out that she's a banshee, she hasn't really known about werewolves that long, and she really cares about you," I said, standing up for my friend. "She's into you, I know that because you're pretty great and if you start acting cocky about that, I'm going to punch you."

"You're tiny, mini. I don't think you could do much damage," he said, pushing my shoulder gently. Then he got serious and said, "You really think she's into me?"

"Yes, but you did help kill Boyd and your old pack. Like, that's scary. Lydia doesn't want to be with a killer, she wants to be with someone who loves her and takes care of her. She'll never admit that, but I know it's true," I reasoned with him.

"So I'm just going to have to keep showing her that I'm trying to change for her," he said finally. "Thanks for the help, mini McCall."

"Thanks for the ride," I said hugging him as best as I could with him still on the bike before going inside.

The sun was rising as I got ready for school without any sleep. I've called Stiles fourteen times since Aiden dropped me off and he hasn't answered once. I'd stopped leaving messages after the fifth time he didn't answer, but I kept calling.

I was finished getting ready after showering and curling my hair. He hadn't even texted me and I was starting to get pissed. Stiles Stilinski knew how to piss me off more than anyone I knew and it made me want to kill him.

"Has Stiles called and talked to you?" I asked Scott as we ate breakfast together.

"No, I figured he was talking to you all night. Was I wrong?" he asked, taking a bite out of his bacon.

"Yeah, he didn't call me or answer my fourteen calls," I told him, taking my empty plate over to the sink as I spoke.

"Why did he leave last night? I didn't even see him go," he asked, tossing me a helmet.

"I don't know, he told me that he had to help his dad and then he ran off," I explained. "Wait, he freaked out about a key on his key ring that had something that glowed in the dark on it."

"Yeah, he told me about the key too. He was really freaked about it," he said. "I'm sure he's going to be at school. We'll talk to him there, put on the helmet and hold onto me."

I rolled my eyes at his instructions, I've ridden with him a ton of times. I held onto him and hid my face against his back. I was insanely pissed at Stiles, but there was a part of me that was worried.

We were stopped at a red light when I heard other motorcycle engines behind me. I turned around and saw that Scott was being flanked by Ethan and Aiden. I knew by the tenseness in his shoulders that he knew they were there and he didn't like it.

"Hold on tight," he warned before the light switched to green and he gunned the engine.

I screamed a little and then started laughing, I loved going fast! I could hear the others still behind him, keeping pace with his dirt bike easily on their expensive motorcycles. I wasn't afraid, after last night or this morning or whatever it was, I completely trusted Aiden and, by association, Ethan.

They all drove rapidly until they pulled into the school lot and had to slow down. Scott parked in one spot and Ethan and Aiden parked in the spots on either side of him. I laughed after I'd taken the helmet off and waited for them to start talking.

"What the hell are you guys doing? Why are you following me?" Scott asked in a tense whisper.

"We're making sure that you don't get attacked by the demonic ninjas from last night," Ethan told him.

"Yeah, you know the ones who pulled swords out of their chests and kicked all of our asses?" Aiden added, smiling over at me. "Morning, mini."

I grinned and waved at him while Scott started talking, "I don't need anyone to protect me, I can handle myself and my pack just fine."

"That's not true, we saw them starting right at you when the sun came up. You know that means they're going to come after you next," Ethan explained.

"They disappeared when the sun came up, meaning that they can only be out in the night," Scott argued. "Which also means that I'm safe from them in the sunlight."

"Well, we don't know anything about them. They could be able to be in the sun, but they want us to think they can't so we won't expect them to attack," I said, making Scott glare at me.

"Exactly, which means we should play it safe all day," Aiden said.

"And all night," Ethan added.

They wanted to be in Scott's pack to save their asses and I knew that. But there was something about them that I knew Scott couldn't see. He was so convinced that they were bad guys that he couldn't see that they needed help. Maybe I was a bleeding heart, but I couldn't let them be in danger.

"Fine, but I have to go do something first. I have to talk to Stiles about what happened last night," Scott told them, his resolve cracking. "And no wolf hearing, this is private."

Ethan mumbled something under his breath and Scott quickly said, "I'm a true alpha, you have no idea what I can do."

I followed Scott upstairs to the chemistry classroom and saw Stiles sitting at a desk. I sat in the one in front of him while Scott sat at the one beside him.

"Last night Scarlet was talking about phosphors being found in chemicals and then being the fingerprint on the key. That made me think of the chemistry closet and the face that someone let Barrow in," Stiles dug around in his pocket and came out with his keys. "The key's gone and so are the numbers from the board, but Scarlet saw them."

"Yeah, I was with you when you found both of them. What are you getting at?" I asked, clutching his arm even though I was mad.

"Well I came back here last night and the numbers were still on the board. They were in my handwriting and the key I had opened up the chemistry closet," he was completely hysterical as he confessed what he was thinking.

"Are you telling us that you think you unlocked the chemistry closet and wrote Kira's name on the board for Barrow?" I asked, putting the pieces together.

He dug around in his backpack and came out with a set of papers. "I know how that sounds, but look at this. This is the news report that came out about Barrow when they caught him, okay? About the shrapnel bomb that he used. He put nuts, bolts, and screws inside it and then hid the bomb and the detonator in a box that he wrapped as a birthday present. What does that sound like to you?"

"What we did to coach," Scott said quietly.

"Exactly, and it was my idea, remember? That was my idea and there's no way this is a coincidence," Stiles told us.

"Stiles, you're insane if you seriously think this is true! There's no way that you're trying to kill people," I said, taking his hand in mine and rubbing my thumb over his knuckles.

"It was my handwriting, and I'm sure it was my fingerprint on that key," Stiles said breathlessly. "

"Dude, are you feeling okay? You look like you're dead on your feet," Scott asked, trying to change the subject.

"I'm okay, I just haven't been sleeping a lot lately," he answered.

**…**

"You and I are going to have a sleepover at your house tonight. It's going to be fun and completely werewolf-free," Lydia told me after school ended that day.

I knew better than to disagree with Lydia once she set her mind to something. I just grabbed my backpack and went out to her car with her. She turned the radio on and we sang along with the song that was playing.

I couldn't hold in my laughter at how terrible we sounded together. That combined with our terrible dance moves was enough to make me toss my head back and howl with laughter. I knew this was one of those moments that we were normal teenagers.

I pulled my phone out and waited until we were stopped at a red light to talk to Lydia. "Hey, let's take a cute car selfie."

She laughed and turned to face me, making funny faces with me until the car behind us honked and I saw that the light was green now. We drove to my house and parked behind Scott's dirt bike.

"I wonder why Scott's home so early? He never comes home right after school," I said, grabbing my bag and going into the house with Lydia on my heels. "Scott?"

"Scarlet! Do you know where mom has the mountain ash?" he asked, running over to me and leaving Kira standing at the kitchen counter.

"No, Deaton said that it would be best if she was the only one who knew where it was," I said. "What's going on? Why are you and Kira here?"

"I think that she and I are the next ones that _Oni _want next," Scott told me, glancing over at Kira. "The Oni are the demon ninja warrior things that've attacked you, Lydia, Ethan, and Stiles."

"Basically you're hiding here without any thing keeping the _Oni_ out?" Lydia stated, crossing her arms over her chest. "That doesn't sound very smart."

"Deaton came in and supernatural-proofed our house. We have mountain ash somewhere in the house, but mom's the only one that knows where," I explained to her. "It's a genius plan if mom comes home in time."

"Which she will, she has to," Scott reassured, glancing back at Kira. "I called and told her the plan, she swore she'd be home before dark."

"So now we play the waiting game," I finished. "Lydia and I are going upstairs to my room."

She and I were sitting on my bed when she finally asked, "Are you brother and Kira a thing now? Like, officially?"

"I have no idea, but I know Scott has a thing for her just like Allison has for Isaac," I said, running my fingers through my hair.

"Well, that's an interesting turn of events," she said, pursing her lips. "What about you and Stiles?"

"What about us?" I asked, trying to veer away from what she was asking. "I don't know, it's hard to be together when there's so much going on."

"I know what you mean," she told me and I knew she was talking about Aiden.

"You know that Aiden's really into you," I told her. "He brought me home last night and he told me that he was trying his best to change for you. I really think he is, Lydia."

"I hope so, he's too cute to quit," she said, fanning herself dramatically.

She and I joked around like normal kids until I heard the front door open. I ran downstairs with Lydia trailing behind me. When I got there, the last thing I expected to see was Scott and Agent McCall standing in the kitchen.

"You still have a key to the house?" I asked in surprise, making both of them and Kira all turn around to look at me.

"Your brother just asked me the same thing," he replied. "To which I responded with, how do they have a key to my office? Do you know?"

I raised my brows at Scott and he flashed me a pleading look. I knew that I needed to go along with whatever came out of his mouth. I glanced at Lydia and saw that she understood what he wanted too. It was a pack moment, and it made me feel warm inside.

Agent McCall sat a laptop on the counter and opened it up. There was a picture of Scott and Kira on it and they looked like they had no idea it was being taken. I knew it wasn't a good sign, and I'm sure something illegal was happening when it was taken.

"This usually starts out with something along the lines of 'it's not what it looks like' or 'I can explain.' Which one do you want?" Agent McCall asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Dad, let me help you out. You need to leave," Scott said, trying to make him leave before it got dark and the Oni got there.

"I will, when I get a satisfactory explanation to why your picture is on my laptop," Agent McCall said, staring at Scott defiantly.

"Go get a warrant," Scott told him, I could practically feel the anger coursing off of him.

"I don't need a warrant," he responded. "I'm your father."

"You're not our father, you're our gene donor! We got our hair color from you and that's all," I shouted, moving forward to stand with Scott. "Fathers are there to teach you how to ride a bike, but you didn't teach us that, Sheriff Stilinski did! You not allowed to play tough with him."

I felt Scott slid his hand into mine as Lydia and Kira came up behind us. It was like they were flanking us just in case a fight broke out. Kira was slowly becoming part of our pack and I was slowly developing a friendship with her.

"Hey! What's going on here?" mom asked when she walked in through the back door.

"Mom! Hurry, where's the mountain ash? You've got to put it out before the Oni get here!" Scott shouted, ignoring Agent McCall.

Before mom could get to the ash, an Oni appeared in the living room. Scott dropped my hand and ran over Agent McCall to stop him from approaching the Oni, but he wasn't fast enough. The Oni's sword went through his shoulder and back out, dropping Agent McCall to the floor.

Mom grabbed him under his arms and dragged him away. I heard a smash and looked up to see that Derek was in the house now along with the twins. I saw the fight start and ran over to pick up the bag of mountain ash.

The moment they tossed the Oni outside, poured the ash along the entrance. Ethan tried to reach out, but he was shocked so I knew the border was in place. I relaxed back against the counter and let out a deep breath of relaxation.

Kira walked up to stand beside me and reach out to touch the door. I jumped in surprise when the screen door shocked her like it had shocked Ethan earlier. She immediately looked over at me and I mimed a zipper over my lips. She smiled gratefully be she walked over to the werewolves with me behind her.

They were all talking about the "security" around the house. I wasn't home when Deaton supernatural-proofed the house. Apparently we had ash wood baseboards so it was pretty easy to fix the house. Which was good, it made me feel just a tad bit safer.

"And where the hell did you come from?" Scott asked, gesturing to Derek and the twins.

"I've been following you all day and I called for a little bit of muscle when it got dark," Derek answered finally, looking down at his feet instead of Scott's intense gaze.

"Guys, this isn't good! He needs more help than I can give him," mom shouted over at us from her spot on the ground beside Agent McCall.

"How bad is it?" Scott asked.

"From the way his arm is rotated, the tendon looks torn. He could be well on his way to a collapsed lung," she answered, pushing down on his wound to staunch the bleeding.

"There's no way we can go anywhere, mom. Those things outside aren't going anywhere until the sun comes up," I told her.

"I understand that, Scarlet. At the rate he's bleeding, he's not gonna make it that long. We have to get him to the hospital," mom's voice was strained when she spoke. "Should we call Stiles' dad?"

"I don't know," Scott answered, walking over to stand with her. "Is that going to get more people hurt?"

"Guns don't work on them, neither do manmade weapons in general," Lydia chimed in. "I heard Allison and her dad talking about them."

"The Oni are a force of nature. You don't fight a tsunami, you endure it and hope you don't get destroyed in its path," Derek explained.

"Then how do we endure it?" Scott asked.

"Three of you already have," Derek answered. Then he grabbed Ethan and turned his head to show us the backwards five. "Lydia and Scarlet both have these in the same place and so does Isaac. It's the Japanese kanji for 'self.' The mark means that they're still themselves and the Oni are looking for ones that are no longer themselves."

"What does that mean? No longer themselves?" I asked, absentmindedly touching the mark behind my ear.

"Possessed," Derek answered. "Possessed by a dark spirit."

"It's Kira, right?" Ethan asked, storming over to her and making Scott tense. "You going to tell us what you are?"

"What? What are you talking about?" Kira asked.

"Aiden, watch!" Ethan said before pushing Kira into the screen door and watching it flare. "She can't go through it either."

"So, what are you?" Aiden asked, approaching Kira.

I moved before I realized it and pulled Kira over to stand with Lydia and me. I knew she wasn't particularly safer over there, but I liked her odds farther away from the twins. Even if I did sort of trust them, I knew they wanted in the pack and they would do whatever it took to get there.

"She's a Kitsune, idiot. Use your eyes, you can see it all around her. The younger ones give off an aura," Derek explained, as always. "She just hasn't learned how to conceal it yet. She probably doesn't even know what kind she is either."

"What do you mean? There are more than just one type of Kitsune?" Scott asked, standing close to Kira, Lydia, and me just in case things went south again.

"There are 12 kinds of Kitsune. Celestial, wild, ocean, thunder… But there's one, a dark Kitsune, they call it void or Nogitsune," Derek explained. "It feeds on pain and tragedy, strife and chaos."

"She's not evil! I saw her aura and it didn't look evil," Scott argued, stepping in front of Kira.

"The Kitsune is a trickster spirit, it could be playing a trick on you," Kira told Scott, touching his back gently.

"No way, I've seen the bad guys and she's not one of them!" Scott said with a note of finality in his voice.

We all sort of broke apart after that. Mom was still over with Agent McCall, but I couldn't bring myself to go over there. I stayed with Lydia and tried to make the dull ache in my head go away.

I heard a loud banging noise and realized that he Oni were trying to find a way inside. Lydia and I moved over to stand with the twins as we watched the door. I thought that the barrier made me safe, but when I saw one of their hands burst through it, I realized I was wrong.

"They're breaking through the barrier!" I said, clutching Scott's arm. "What do we do if they come inside?"

When he didn't answer me, I looked over at him and saw that he was on the phone. There was a spark of hope in his gaze. I was bouncing on my toes as I waited for him to hang up and tell us what he was hearing.

"Allison said that Silverfinger told her that they'll move on once they realize that none of us are the Nogitsune," he said quickly. I heard the barrier finally break and Scott shouted, "Don't do anything!"

"What do you mean? There's no way they just want to talk to us, Scott!" Aiden shouted, trying to fight his orders.

"Just trust me, if you want in my pack, you have to trust my judgment," he responded as the Oni closed it.

Lydia took my hand in hers and I knew she was having flashbacks of when she was attacked. The cold feeling started bubbling in my stomach. The feelings were coming back to me too, but I pushed them back.

I watched as one of the Oni reached out and touched Scott and others touched Kira, Aiden, and Derek. They all fell to the ground and the Oni disappeared just like that. I rushed over to Scott and held onto him as he slowly became conscious again.

**…**

We ended up calling an ambulance for Agent McCall. Mom rode inside with him and that made something form in the bottom of my stomach. It was like he was trying to fix things with all of us and weasel his way back into our lives. Well, we were all just fine without him, we didn't need him.

"Hey, I'm going to go check on Stiles. Do you want to come with me?" Scott asked.

"Wait, why are you checking on Stiles? What happened?" I asked, worry working its way through my bones.

"He checked himself into the hospital earlier for exhaustion. Didn't mom tell you?" He asked, walking out to his dirt bike with me right behind him.

"No! No one ever tells me anything!" I shouted, jumping on the back and holding onto his waist. I leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "I'm a terrible girlfriend, I never know what's going on with him anymore."

It was quiet until we parked at the hospital and he turned around to face me. "Don't worry, I don't know what's going on with him anymore either."

Somehow his admittance didn't make me feel any better. I walked into the hospital and saw Stiles sitting in the waiting room. When he saw me, he smiled and stood up with his arms opened.

I walked into them and wrapped mine around his torso. "I'm so sorry that I didn't come here earlier. I didn't know you were in here."

"It's okay, I just slept the entire time. You couldn't have done much," he told me, kissing the side of my head.

I could quite shake the feeling that there was something off about him as we all walked out of the hospital together.

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**Can I get five reviews before the next chapter?**


	6. Chapter 6

**There is major Starlet in this chapter and I love it! It's a sad one, like, super sad. I really hope you all like it as much as I do, though. **

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I was sleeping hard when I heard my phone start ringing on my nightstand. It was still dark outside so I knew it wasn't my alarm. I looked at the screen and saw that it was Stiles.

"Hey, what's wrong, baby? It's late," I said through a yawn. When he didn't answer, I asked, "Stiles, are you still there?"

There was static on the other line, but then I heard Stiles' whispery voice. "Scarlet, hey, I'm here."

His voice was ragged and I was on my feet before I realized it. He must've had a nightmare and I was going to go over and be with him.

"Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare? Can you hear me?" I asked quickly, grabbing my shoes and shoving my feet into them. "Do you need me?"

"Scarlet, I don't… I don't know where I am. I don't know how I got here, but I think I was sleepwalking," his voice was terrifying for me because he sounded so afraid.

"Take a breath, baby, it's okay. Just tell me what you see," I told him, trying my best to calm him down.

"Uhm, it's dark. It's hard to see anything," he said. Then he sounded even more freaked when he said, "I think there's something wrong with my…"

The line disconnected and I ran to Scott's room as I redialed him. I got his voicemail twice before he answered again. I put the call on speaker and pushed Scott awake. He was about to start talking when I shushed him.

"Stiles?" I asked, tears welling up in my eyes.

"Scar, I don't think I can get out of here. I can't move," Stiles was hysterical by this point and so was I.

"Where are you, Stiles?" Scott asked, pulling me close to him and rubbing my shoulder as he tried to take control.

"I don't know, guys. It's too dark and I can't see much. I think there's something wrong with my leg, it's stuck on something. And it's… I think it's bleeding," Stiles said, his breathing ragged as he spoke.

"Scott, he's bleeding and he doesn't know where he is. We have to go find him!" I was sobbing and clutching Scott like a lifeline.

"How bad is it? Stiles, how bad is it? Stiles, are you there? Can you hear me?" Scott was becoming hysterical too.

"Scar, baby, don't cry!" Stiles begged, making me cry even harder. "There's some sort of smell down here, it smells terrible. It's brutal, my eyes are watering!"

"We're going to call you dad and come find you!" Scott said, reaching to grab his phone.

"No, no, no, no, don't do that!" Stiles begged as I tried to remember how to breathe.

"But your dad…" Scott tried, but Stiles quickly cut him off.

"Don't! Please don't call him," Stiles said. "Promise me that you won't call him! He already worries about me too much. Scott, Scar, please!"

"But what if I can't find you, Stiles?" Scot asked.

"I can't make that promise!" I told him.

"Please, don't call him. Come find me, you guys can do it," Stiles was sniffiling on the other line and I wanted to have him in my arms more than anything. "He doesn't have to know. If anyone can find me, it's you guys."

Stiles tried to get off the phone, but Scott fought him every step. Eventually the line went dead and I knew Stiles had turned his phone off. I was sobbing into my knees when Scott shouted for Isaac.

He ran into the room and almost fell. If he hadn't thrown out his hand and grabbed the jamb of the door, he'd probably be sprawled out on the floor right now.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" he asked, running over to me and pulling me close. "Scott, what's wrong?"

"It's Stiles," Scott told him, jumping up and digging around in his dresser. "Go get dressed."

I let him go and wiped my face, I had to pull myself together. Stiles was out there somewhere, alone and hurt. I couldn't be this fragile little flower, I had to be strong for him. I ran into my room and pulled on pants and a hoodie with boots before running back into Scott's room.

When I got back, I saw that he and Isaac were waiting for me. Isaac came over to me and wrapped me in a tight hug. Placing his chin on my shoulder and kissing my temple.

"We're going to find him and he's going to be okay," he whispered to me as Scott put on his shoes. "I promise."

"You don't even like Stiles," I said, sniffing and rubbing my face with the sleeve of Stiles' hoodie that I was wearing. "Why are you helping?"

"Because I like to see you smiling," he told me. "Plus your sad face is way too contagious."

I punched him in the arm and pulled my hair up into a ponytail. I was finished crying, it took too much energy that I could be putting into finding my boyfriend.

…

We were in the living room when Stiles called Scott this time. I had Isaac's hand in mine, practically squeezing the life out of it, as they talked. After Scott reassured him he hadn't called his dad, he prompted him to describe where he was.

"It's a basement; I think I'm in some kind of basement," he stuttered out. "I think it's industrial, it's too big to be in a house."

"What else is there? What do you see?" Scott asked, trying to get more details so we could find him.

"The phone's dying, I can't talk," Stiles told him. Then he whispered, "I have to go."

"Please, Stiles, why are you whispering? What's happening?" I asked, well it was more begging than asking but whatever.

The next thing he said chilled the blood in my veins and had me holding onto Isaac to stay standing. "Because I think there's someone in here with me."

**...**

It was Scott's idea to go to Stiles' house and look in his room for clues to find him. I felt like I was part of the Scooby Gang when he said that, but I went. I had to find Stiles, there was no other option.

Imagine our surprise when we opened the door and saw Lydia and Aiden standing in there already. I ran over to Lydia and hugged her, feeling the tension in her body that I knew I shared. She was as worried about Stiles as I was; I can't believe I used to try to hate her.

"How did you know he was missing? Did he call you too?" Scott asked after we parted and I moved back over to stand between him and Isaac.

"No, I heard it," Lydia answered, making confusion spark up.

Aiden saw my face and quickly said, "Don't ask. Trust me, it gets way more confusing when you ask."

"It's not as confusing as this mess!" Lydia exclaimed, gesturing to the strings that were scattered all around the room.

"He uses red for unsolved cases," I told her, remembered when I'd asked him about it the other night.

"It's all red," Aiden said in disbelief, but we all collectively ignored him. "Maybe he thinks he's part of an unsolved case?"

"Or is an unsolved case," Isaac murmured.

"Hold on- is he still out there? You don't know where he is?" Lydia asked us.

"He told us he was in some kind of industrial basement somewhere," I explained to her. "They came here to get a better scent to look for him."

"What else did he say?" she asked.

A pang hit my stomach and I crossed my arms over it when Scott said, "Something's wrong with his leg. It's bleeding and he says that he's freezing."

"Tonight's the coldest night of the year. It's going to drop down into the 20s," Aiden said, trying his best to be helpful.

"Okay. Before we cause Scarlet to go into cardiac arrest, what did his dad say?" Lydia asked, rubbing my arm.

"Uhm, we kind of… We haven't told him yet," Scott said, staring down at his feet instead of Lydia incredulous stare.

"Stiles is out there somewhere bleeding and freezing, and none of you called his dad?" she screeched at all of us. "Them I believe, but Scar, how did you let that happen?"

"I hated doing it, but he made us promise!" I exclaimed, covering my mouth with my hand.

Scott hugged me tightly and whispered, "We can find him by scent. Isaac and I can do this, okay? Just trust us."

"If he's sleepwalking, he couldn't have gotten that far, right? We can find him," Aiden reassured, backing Scott.

"His Jeep is gone, Scott! You guys promised that you wouldn't call his dad, but I didn't," Lydia said, grabbing her phone out of her pocket.

"Wait, Lydia, hold on. I can get more help, I can call Derek, Allison, everyone except for the cops!" Scott pleaded, but I'd already shifted to be on Lydia's side. I think he saw that because he sighed in defeat, "Okay, but it's only five minutes to the station. We'll just go there instead of calling."

"We'll catch up with you," Lydia said, walking over to the strings. "There's something here and I'm going to figure out what it is."

I gave Aiden a look that told him that he had to take care of her while we were gone. I saw him nod and knew that he understood. Maybe I was being too protective, but then again I did just lose my boyfriend.

**…**

"Come on," Sheriff Stilinski said after we told him about Stiles. "If his Jeep is gone, that's where we'll start. Parrish, let's get an APH out on a blue 1980 CJ-5 Jeep. Cordova, I want a list of any kind of industrial basement or sub-level of any building that he could've gotten into while sleepwalking.

"It's the coldest night of the year so far. So if he's out their barefoot in just a t-shirt, he could already be hypothermic. Let's move fast, let's think fast! The three of you, come with me," Sheriff said, going into his office with all of us on his tail. "Okay, is there anything you need to tell me that I can't tell anyone out there?"

"We're not the only ones who knew he was missing," I said quietly. "Lydia knew before any of us told her. She "heard" it."

"Can she help us find him with her supernatural thing?" he asked almost like he couldn't believe he was seriously experiencing this. "Anything else?"

"I called Allison and Derek for help," Scott told him.

He nodded and I saw that he was shaking with fear. I pushed through the boys and wrapped my arms around the Sheriff's waist. He hugged me back and I felt him relax a little bit when he realized that he wasn't the only one that was afraid.

"We're going to find him," he told me without any doubt in his voice. "I know we are."

An officer knocked on the door before he came inside and said, "We got it, sir. We found the Jeep."

I rode with the Sheriff to the hospital where the Jeep had been found and Scott followed behind with Isaac on his dirt bike. If it were any other situation, I would laugh at how ridiculous they both looked. But right now my heart was pounding too fast and my body was too numb to do that.

I got out and ran to the Jeep with Scott and Isaac. Apparently he'd left his lights on because the battery was dead. That wasn't good, it meant that wherever Stiles was he didn't have his Jeep to keep warm in. He probably walked wherever he was.

"Why would Stiles leave his Jeep here?" I asked, chewing on my lip as I twisted the sleeves of the hoodie I was wearing.

"I have no idea, but we're going to find out," Sheriff Stilinski answered.

"We're going to go check the roof," Scott said. "Scar, go inside and look with mom and Stiles' dad. Okay?"

I knew he was doing that to get me out of his way and warm, but I didn't call him out on it. I liked someone taking care of me right now. I was too spastic to do what I needed to on my own, his instruction gave me something to do.

"There are security guards searching every floor," mom said as the Sheriff and I walked into the hospital.

I hugged her tightly and inhaled her soothing scent. She smelled like caramel and cinnamon, it smelled like home.

"Have you checked the basement?" I asked after she let me go. "He said that he thought he was in an industrial basement."

"No, let's go," she said, leading both of us to the basement of the hospital.

We searched the entire basement but found nothing. My hysteria was building up again when I heard my phone ring. I nearly cried when it was Scott and not Stiles.

"Stiles isn't here anymore, Derek and I can't smell him. But from what we do smell, he was struggling with himself about something. His anxiety and stress level is through the roof," Scott told me, making me start being the sides of my fingers. "Stay in the lobby of the hospital, I'm coming down to meet up with you all."

I was bouncing up and down on my toes as I continued to chew on my fingers. I tasted blood and knew I'd bit too deep. I just moved on to the next finger and started chewing on it. Mom came over to me and placed her hands on mine, pulling them away from my mouth.

"I know you're terrified about Stiles, but you can't chew on your fingers like that. Don't you remember what happened the last time you did that?" she told me, lacing her fingers with mine and trying her best to comfort me.

I did that really bad after her and dad got a divorce. I was young, but I ended up getting an infection from all the open spots on my hands. I had to be hospitalized and everything, it wasn't good.

"I just really want him to be okay. He says he's hurt and cold and I just want him to be all right," I was crying again when she pulled me to her. "I love him so much, mom."

She kissed the side of my head and rubbed my back. "I know, sweetheart. I care a lot about Stiles too, but I know there's no one out there more equipped to find him than all of us."

"Okay, Lydia texted me and said that she thinks Stiles is at Eichen House," Scott said as he ran into the hospital with all of us. "She says she's sure, but I don't know."

"I trust Lydia's judgment," I said, wiping my face with my sleeve and standing up straight.

**…**

To say that I was devastated when Stiles wasn't in the basement would be an understatement. I felt like someone stabbed me in the chest and twisted the knife. I just wanted to wake up and find out that this was all a dream. That I had fell asleep doing homework with Stiles and I was lying with him on his bed, but I knew that wasn't going to happen.

"I don't get it. This has to be where he is," Lydia said, looking around hopelessly.

"Then where is he, huh? Where is he? Where is he, Lydia?" I screeched, whipping around to glare at her. I saw the look on her face and instantly regretted snapping at her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scream at you."

"I don't understand," Lydia said again after she nodded at me. "He should be here."

**…**

We had all went back to the police station when mom called me. She said that she and Agent McCall and found Stiles at the coyote cave. He was at the hospital getting treated for hypothermia.

I rode with the Sheriff again to the hospital and anxiously waited until he came out to run into the room. Stiles was sleeping, but I sat by his bed with his hand in mine anyway.

"You're asleep and can't hear me, but I'm going to talk to you anyway," I told him, trying to rub warmth back into his icy hands. "You scared the shit out of me, Stilinski. I can't believe you'd do that.

"I know that you can't control this stuff, but it's still not okay. If it keeps happening, I'm going to have to move in with you, handcuff you to me, and sleep beside you," I told him.

"That doesn't sound that bad, actually," he rasped out, making me laugh. When he looked at me, he frowned, "Why are you crying, Scar?"

He reached up and wiped my face in a fumble before holding me. I closed my eyes and just soaked in the way his hands felt.

"I love you, that's why," I whispered. "I want to help you get through this, okay? I just need you to tell me how."

"If I knew, I would tell you. I don't even know how to get through it on my own," he whispered, back to me before scooting over in his bed. "Come up here, I'm freezing and you're warm."

"You're half dead but still trying to get me into bed with you?" I laughed as I stood up. "You can't be that sick."

He rolled over onto his side and pulled me close to his chest. He placed one of his hands on the back of my head, his arm under it, and the other wrapped around my waist. I placed my hand on the inside of his gown and rubbed his skin absentmindedly as I fell asleep.

**…**

"Okay, this is sweet and all, but you've got school!" I heard my mom say. "Get up, Scarlet Lorraine McCall!"

I groaned and tried to stretch out, but there wasn't any room. My bed was bigger than that. Then I remembered that I stayed with Stiles in the hospital last night. I opened my eyes and saw Stiles' honey ones watching my movements.

"Morning," he whispered, kissing my nose. "You've got school, get up."

"Do you know how many rules you two broke last night? This is totally not allowed," mom continued talking. "I covered for you and said you're cousins, but I don't think anyone believed me."

I actually laughed out loud at that and sat up, rolling out of the bed. Stiles flopped onto his back and stretched his own body out. His hair was tousled everywhere and his face was sleepy still. I was overcome with affection for him.

When mom walked out of the room, I rushed forward and kissed him. He threaded his fingers in my hair and held my waist as he kissed me back. His tongue traced its way along the seam of my lips and I eagerly let him inside.

"That is disgusting! I don't think cousins should do things like that," Lydia said as she came into Stiles' room with us. "You're lucky it was me and not your mom because this would've taken some major explaining."

I rolled my eyes and pecked his lips one more time before standing up straight. "Good morning to you too, Lydia. What do I owe the honor?"

"I brought you clothes for school and I'm your ride," she said, tossing me a bag. "Go get dressed so we're not late."

I nodded and went into the bathroom attached to Stiles' room. I got dressed quickly and thanked whatever was up that that Lydia had a sense of style. I knew my hair was a no-go so I just pulled it up and put on minimal makeup.

I walked back out into the room and saw that Lydia had left. I dug around in the bag and found my earrings and necklace. I was putting on my deodorant when I glanced over at Stiles' face. His eyes were huge as they raked up and down my body.

"What are you staring at?" I asked, glancing down at my body. "Is there something wrong with this outfit?"

"That's my shirt," he said, smiling at me sleepily. "It looks really good on you."

There was something behind Stiles' eyes that I've never seen before. It was gone before I could focus on it, but it did raise a flag. It almost made me uneasy…

"I've got to go," I said, grabbing the bag and my phone. "I love you, get better, and I'll see you later."

I met up with Lydia and rode to school with her. I couldn't get the look on Stiles' face out of my head, never in my life has being around Stiles made me feel uncomfortable. If anything I was more comfortable around him than I was most people, but something was off.

When we got to school, I saw Scott standing at Lydia's locker waiting for us. That made what happened last night come rushing back and I frowned.

"I don't know what happened," Lydia told us as she dug around in her locker. "I was so sure."

"It's okay, none of us were much help either. It doesn't matter, it he's okay," Scott told her, squeezing her arm in reassurance.

I saw Lydia's face go blank as she looked around quickly. It was almost like she was hearing something that no one else could hear. I'd seen Scott look around like that a lot when he was first turning.

"Lydia?" I asked. "Lydia, do you hear something?"

She tried to cover up that she was hearing something, but I knew the truth. I would ask her about it later.

"No," she answered, closing her locker. "I didn't hear anything."

**…**

School couldn't end fast enough for me. I wanted to go back to Stiles, the feeling from this morning forgotten. I just wanted to hug him; after what happened last night, I hated letting him out of my sight.

Mom texted me during lunch saying that they decided to do tests on Stiles. Apparently he was showing signs of the same disorder that his mom had. That scared me to pieces so I couldn't even imagine how utterly terrified that Stiles was.

"They're doing tests on Stiles all afternoon. I'm heading over now with Scott, do you want to come with us?" I asked her, stopping along the lockers when I saw her get a little white.

"I think I need to go home," she said quietly. "I'm just a little hyper-sensitive to loud sounds today."

"Are you totally sure you're okay?" I asked her when she jumped for no reason. "You're scaring me a little."

"Yeah, I'll text you later," she said absentmindedly before walking away from me.

"Let's go," Scott said after he found me sitting on one of the benches outside of school. "Hey, what's wrong, sis?"

"There is so much going on right now!" I told him. "I think Lydia's keeping secrets from me and Stiles may be sick. Scott, his mom died because of it!"

"Hey, it's okay. Stiles is going to be fine and Lydia is just Lydia," he said, hugging me close to him. "But speaking of Stiles, we'd better go. I don't want to be late."

**…**

Seeing how upset Stiles was made my heart ache. I wanted to pull him to my chest and kiss the top of his head. The doctor was saying something, but I wasn't listening to a word of it. I just held Stiles' hand in mine, rubbing soothing circles into it as we listened.

Everyone other than Scott and I left the room. I saw Sheriff Stilinski stop and talk to him for a second before slipping out of the room.

"You guys know what they're looking for, right? It's called frontotemporal dementia; areas of your brain start to shrink," Stiles explained, breaking my heart for him. "It's what my mother had. It's the only form of dementia that can hit teenagers, and there's no cure."

I moved his hands up to my mouth and kissed them repeatedly.

"Stiles, if you have it, we'll do something," Scott said, making me step back and allow them to hug. "I'll do something."

He was talking about giving Stiles the bite. I knew the mere thought of biting someone made Scott cringe. But I also knew if it was the only thing that could save Stiles, Scott wouldn't even think about not doing it.

Stiles let go of him and wiped his face before leaving and letting us have a moment together. I had so much that I wanted to say to him, but I couldn't find the words. I just flung my arms around him and cried into his neck.

"Hey, it's okay," he told me, rubbing my back like I was the one that was about to go into a machine. "I have something for you."

I pulled away from him and wiped my face. "What are you talking about? You've been in the hospital all day. Where'd you get something for me? If it's something disgusting, I'll punch you, whether you're sick or not."

He reached behind his back and came back with a small black box. He held it out to me with a shy smile on his tired face. I took it from him and opened the top, making me gasp. It was a silver flowered ring that was so pretty. I picked it out of the box and saw that there was writing on the inside.

"Scar, I pick you, always," I read with tears clouding my eyes. "Is this true, Stiles?"

He wiped my eyes and pulled me into a hug, kissing the side of my head. "Oh yeah, I love you and I just want you to know just in case something happens with me while I'm in here and..."

"Shut up, you're going to be fine," I said, kissing him one more time before grabbing the box the ring came in. "Thank you so much, I love it and I love you."

As much as I hated it, I walked out of the room and left him by himself. I moved over to Stiles' dad and took his hand in mine. He looked surprised for a second, but he soon leaned into me and mom whose hand was on his shoulder.

I wasn't the only one who was close to the Stilinski family. We were all like a big extended family. On Thanksgiving and Christmas, we'd come together and have dinner together. Sometimes we even opened presents together.

Scott tapped my arm and showed me that Derek was here. I knew he'd tell me about it later so I nodded. I was going to stay here with Stiles, I didn't want to lose him again.

The lights in the room went dimmer for a second before coming back on. I looked around and saw that the others were surprised as well. Well, the doctor wasn't, but something told me he was calm.

The power went out completely again, but it didn't come back on. I waited for someone to say something, but it seemed like everyone was in shock. I opened up the to the MRI room to find Stiles, the power being off must be terrifying for him inside that thing.

"You guys, he's not in here! He's gone!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Oh my goodness, this took so long to post and write! I'm so sorry that it's taken me so long! God, don't hate me!**

* * *

I was laying in my bed, but sleep was the furthest thing from my mind. Since that power line was cut last night and put Isaac in the burn unit of the hospital, Stiles was missing, and Kira was definitely a Kitsune I couldn't shut down my mind. I was exhausted, that was true, but I couldn't sleep. I don't know if I could ever do that again, honestly.

Stiles was the Nogitsune. My boyfriend was the reason that Isaac was in the hospital and he was the reason that Kira was almost killed. I had no idea how to handle that or how to even function to be honest. Stiles has been missing for 48 hours, which meant I'd gone _two freakin' days_ without seeing him or knowing if he was okay.

I pushed myself out of bed reluctantly, got ready for school, and went downstairs. Mom and Scott were already sitting in the kitchen and I saw a mug of steaming tea, and I knew it was for me. I sat beside Scott at the table across from mom and sipped my tea. I had no idea what to say so I just stayed quiet.

"They're still looking for him. It's past the 48 hour mark, but I guess if anyone's going to go missing for two days and turn up just fine, it's going to be Stiles," mom reassured, but my eyes burned regardless.

"What about Isaac?" Scott asked as I laid my head on his shoulder and sipped my tea.

"Maybe we should go check on him before school," mom suggested and that made my stomach flip, she was avoiding answering the question and that wasn't good.

I finished my tea and grabbed my backpack. I didn't feel like riding on the back of Scott's dirt bike so mom I rode with mom. I felt like everyone was walking on eggshells around me, but I couldn't seem to make myself say anything. It was like they were afraid that if they said the wrong thing I'd shatter.

We were walking through a hallway at the hospital when I saw Allison sitting against the wall. I motioned for Scott and mom to give us a second. I knew that if she was going to talk, it was going to be with either me or Lydia. I wanted to make sure that she knew she wasn't going through this alone.

"Hey, have you been here all night?" I asked, sitting down beside her with my legs crossed.

"Yeah, they won't let me see him because I'm not family," she answered, her eyes glossy and red. "He's in there because he pushed me out of the way. It should be me in that bed."

"Al, we both know that if you'd been electrocuted, you'd be dead. Isaac loves you enough to push you out of the way," I told her wrapping my arm around her. "That's what you do for the people you love, you protect them no matter what. You would've done the same thing for any of us."

She nodded and I saw a couple of tears fall before she wiped them away. She stood up, pushed back her shoulders, and walked over to mom and Scott confidently. I could see the small stutter in her step and knew she was still hurting, but she was trying her best to hide it.

"We're his family, and I've got a key card," mom said, holding it up for all of us to see. "You guys be quick and get to school on time, okay?"

Isaac looked like he was in so much pain. The left side of his face and neck looked like it was just a giant burn and it broke my heart. I hated that he'd been through so much, but he was still being hurt.

"I thought he'd be healing by now," Allison whispered, the scared little girl from the hallway was back.

"So did I," Scott agreed, watching Isaac struggle to breathe even with the oxygen thingies in his nose. "I don't understand why he's not."

"Is he in pain?" Allison asked, reaching out to touch him but deciding against it and drawing her hand back to her body.

Scott reached out and grabbed Isaac's hand in his, and I saw his veins turning black. I knew he was trying to take away some of Isaac's pain. Judging by the look on Scott's face, Isaac was in _a lot_ of pain. When he pulled back, Scott started rubbing his hand to try and make the ache stop.

I hated how whispery and weak my voice was when I asked, "Did he really do this?"

Scott looked at me with pity clear in his eyes because of how small my voice sounded. I hated how I felt right now, but I couldn't help it.

"No, it's whatever's controlling him," he finally said, coming over to where I was standing and wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "Whatever's inside him..."

"I want it out of him, and I want him back. How do we do that?" I asked, leaning into him and crossing my arms over my chest as I stared blankly at Isaac.

"I'm working on it," he told me, kissing the side of my head. "I'm working on it."

* * *

I was a zombie at school. I didn't have on any makeup and my hair was in a messy bun on top of my head. I was wearing a hoodie that didn't match my shoes, and I was sure Lydia would let me know about it later on.

"The thing is, in all the stories, Kitsune are tricksters. They're mischievous," Kira explained to Scott and me as we sat in history. "They don't really get caught up in right or wrong or even understand it."

"What does that mean? It's just doing this for the hell of it?" Scott asked, realizing that I wasn't going to participate in the conversation.

I tried to not look at Stiles' empty seat. I knew he wasn't dead, but it made my heart hurt that he wasn't here. I clenched my eyes shut tight and tried to focus on anything other than the empty seat in front of me.

"No, there was something else I found," Kira said. "If you somehow offend a Nogitsune, it can react pretty badly."

That caught my attention and made me sit up straighter. "How do you piss of a Nogitsune?"

"I don't really know," she said, shocked that I spoke but trying to cover it up. "But if it's doing something this bad, then someone really, really offended it."

I stuck by Scott's side the entire day, but I don't think he really minded that much. When the twins met up with us, it wasn't as helpful as I thought it would be.

"We haven't seen Stiles or any demonic shadow ninjas," Ethan reported, making me flood with disappointment.

Aiden walked over to me and held my shoulders in his hands. "How are you holding up, mini McCall?"

I just sighed and wrapped my arms around his waist. He held me close as Scott and Ethan talked back and forth about nothing with Aiden chiming in every now and then. Then suddenly they all tensed and heard something that my human ears couldn't.

"That's one of Argent's emitter," Scott said when he saw my eyes. "I think it's coming from the basement."

They rushed down to the basement with me on their heels. I could tell by Aiden and Scott's looks that they wished I would've stayed put, but they both knew how stubborn I was. Anything that got me out of classes filled with staring at seats that my boyfriend should be sitting in.

Scott made me stay behind him as he and the twins stalked into the dark basement to check if it was safe. I could see the bluish light that the emitters gave off, but I couldn't see what was holding it. Sometimes I liked being short, but this was not one of those times.

Growls started rattling through the twins' chests and I knew that was a bad sign. They barged forward and I could see who was holding the emitter. My heart started pounding in my chest and hope soared through me when I saw that it was Stiles.

"Scott, stop them before they kill him!" I screamed, pushing him towards the quickly advancing twins.

He picked Ethan up and tossed him against the wall after they ignored his pleas to stop. Then he let out a warning growl that quickly pulled Aiden back into submission. The moment the threat was gone, I threw myself at Stiles.

I kissed the side of his head and wrapped my entire body around his. I didn't care if he was the Nogitsune or not, he was my boyfriend. He held me close just like he always did and I _knew _that it was him, I just knew.

"It's me, Scott. I swear it's me," Stiles reassured as I heard Scott let out a warning growl again. "I don't know where I've been the last two days or what I've been doing, but this is me. I promise."

Scott seemed skeptical, but I knew he was just as happy to see Stiles as I was. "Do you know what happened at the hospital?"

"I know more than that," he said, moving away from me to grab his backpack. He pulled out a big piece of paper and laid it on a table. "It's a blueprint of the hospital's electrical wiring. You see all these markings in red? That's my handwriting; I know I did this, I caused the accident. Everything in this bag, it's all stuff that could be part of something bigger."

"What the hell have you been up to?" I asked, looking at all the random things he'd packed in his bag. I picked up a folded piece of paper and said, "I think whatever it is, it's going to happen on the cross-country trails. Look!"

I showed them that the map was of the Cross Country Team's running trail that Stiles had marked up like the blueprint.

"What the hell were you doing with all that stuff? Building a terminator?" Aiden asked, picking up something metal and dropping it and making it clank against the metal table.

I was being a total cling-on with it came to Stiles. I was leaning on him and I had my hand in his back pocket. He didn't seem to mind that much because he held my waist with one arm while he flipped Aiden off with the other.

"Thank you for that," he told Aiden sarcastically.

"That's the Tate car where Malia's family died," Scott said, pointing out one of Stiles' marks on the map.

"That's where her father put those steel-jawed traps, you mean," I said, remembering the time I got my foot stuck in one and Stiles saved me.

Judging by the way Stiles' grip tightened on my waist, he was remembering it too. I knew that there was something dark inside of him, but I couldn't believe it. He was so normal that it was hard.

"We have to go before something happens and someone gets hurt!" Scott said, drawing my attention away from Stiles.

* * *

I wanted to physically glue myself to Stiles' side, but I knew I couldn't do that. I also knew that Aiden and Ethan didn't trust Stiles fully so I figured I shouldn't leave one of them alone with him.

I was close behind Aiden and Stiles as they ran up to Coach Finstock. He was looking at the pair of them like they were completely crazy. To be honest, I didn't really blame him that much because Stiles was missing and Aiden just gave off an air of danger to everyone.

"Coach!" Stiles shouted, like he wasn't already watching all three of us.

"Stilinski, it's good to see that you're not dead!" he said, he was getting ready to start talking again when Stiles held up his hand.

"Coach, you have to listen closely," Stiles instructed, making him raise his eyebrows but listen anyway. "There's something dangerous on this trail. I can't tell you why I know, I can only tell you where it is. You've just got to trust me!"

Coach Finstock looked a little skeptical at first, but he must've saw mine and Aiden's faces because he agreed. That meant we all took off running closely behind Stiles and I groaned. The shoes that I was wearing were so not meant for any physical exertion.

I heard Stiles scream Scott's name and saw that he was running towards us with Kira, Ethan, and Danny behind him. I looked over and saw that the rest of the cross country team were coming from the other direction.

"Stop, stop, stop! Everyone, stop!" Stiles screamed, running in front of the crowd and holding up his hands.

Once everybody stopped moving, Stiles kneeled down to the ground and searched the ground. A couple of seconds later he stood back up with a chain in his hands. He pulled it up from the ground slowly and I clutched Aiden's arm as I waited for something to happen.

Stiles reached the end of the chain and absolutely nothing happened. Coach was the first one to bust his chops. "Congratulations, Stilinski; you found a length of chain. Can somebody now please tell me what's going on?"

I watched him step forward and heard the wind whistle as an arrow sank into his stomach. He must've hit a tripwire or something and triggered the trap.

"Oh, crap," he said, blood coming out of his mouth.

Scott rushed forward to him along with Stiles and me as the cross country team went crazy. I started putting pressure on the wound as Coach blathered on about taking the arrow out. I knew that if I did that, the bleeding would increase and cause more damage.

"Scott, can you…?" Stiles asked, eyeing my red hands and the arrow.

Scott caught on and reached forward, touching Coach Finstock's arm. His hand started turning black and I knew he was taking some of his pain away. Eventually, Coach passed out from the pain and I held pressure on the wound until the ambulance and Sheriff Stilinski arrived.

"I could've killed him! I could've hit his throat or his heart or something," Stiles said as the EMTs loaded Coach up.

"But you didn't," I comforted, using the wet wipe that I'd gotten from the ambulance to clean off the blood.

Stiles and Scott went over to talk to the Sheriff, but that was the last place I wanted to be. Instead, I went over to the twins by Stiles' Jeep. It was weird of them to be there and I wanted to figure out why.

"What are you doing skulking around Stiles' Jeep?" I asked, placing my hands on my hips as I saw them jump. "And you're jumpy? Oh, you've got some explaining to do."

"Look in the backseat," Ethan told me.

I raised a brow and stood on my tiptoes to peek inside. "It's wrapping paper, the same kind that he and Scott used to wrap Finstock's present."

"Wasn't that William Barrow's thing?" Aiden asked me once I'd turned back around.

"A bomb made from nails and bolts all wrapped up in a birthday present?" Ethan added on for emphasis.

I was starting to see what he was talking about. "The bomb that went off on the school bus! This was just a distraction for the real plan! That arrow must've been one of Tate's booby-traps."

"What are you talking about, Scarlet?" Sheriff Stilinski asked as I ran over to them.

"I think there's a bomb on one of the school buses at school. I can't tell you why I think that, you've just got to trust me," I told him, trying to catch my breath.

He was a little skeptical, but he ended up making the call and clearing out the buses. Stiles sped the entire way back to school and we joined the cluster of kids standing outside. I squinted along with everyone else to see what Deputy Parrish was holding up to the windshield of the bus.

It was Sheriff Stilinski's name plate. The bomb was at the police station, this was _another _damned distraction!

* * *

The police station was a wreck by the time we got inside. I saw Derek and Allison's dad leaning against each other near the source of the bomb, but they seemed okay. Then I looked over at Scott and saw him on the floor near a messed up looking police officer with Stiles.

I ran over and crouched beside them, watching as Scott took some of the police officer's pain. I worried about him taking so much of it, but I knew better than to ask him about it. I knew it couldn't be good for him to have that much inside of him.

"You guys, the Oni are coming!" Kira said, running up to all of us.

"We have to get out of here," I said, tugging on Stiles' arm. "You need to get to the Animal Clinic so you're safe."

"You're right, let's go," Scott said, standing up and pushing us all outside. "Kira, do you want to ride over with me?"

Her face turned pink as she shook her head shyly. They were so cute together! I slid closer to Stiles and took his hand into mine. I expected him to lace our fingers like usual, but he didn't.

I just brushed it off and kissed the side of his head, climbing into Stiles' Jeep. The drive was quiet, but it was homey. It was honestly just great to have Stiles back.

We pulled up in front of the Clinic and I jumped out. We had just made it to the door when the Oni appeared from the shadows. I saw Scott toss the keys to the door over to us, and Stiles caught them.

I heard the sound of a fight going on behind us, but I refused to turn around. Then I heard Scott shouting for Kira to go inside before he went silent. Fear prickled down my spine as I whirled around and saw that he had gotten stabbed in the stomach.

I slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle my sob before grabbing Stiles' shoulder. He finally got the door opened and I screamed over to Kira.

"We have to get him inside," I shouted as I ran over to help her bring Scott into the Clinic.

We limped inside and helped him lean against the steel table. I was so focused on Scott and making sure that he breathing was normal that I didn't notice Stiles moving over to where Kira and I were standing.

I looked over right as he was grabbing her arm and flinched when he slammed her head against the table and knocked her out cold. I looked up at Stiles in shock and saw that his eyes were cold. He was the Nogitsune and none of us had seen it.

"Hey, does it hurt?" he asked Scott, gripping the handle of the sword in his hands. "You should've done your reading, both of you. A Nogitsune fees off of chaos, strife, and pain. You've taken in three times today and I want it."

He twisted the sword in Scott's stomach and I felt my lunch trying to make its way back out. I grabbed Stiles' shoulder and tried to pull him back, but it was useless. He brought his elbow back and pain exploded across my face and I everything went black.

* * *

**Thaaaaaaaaaaaanks for reading, babies :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**This chapter is significantly shorter than all the others, but that's because there's so much Stiles at Eichen House. I hope it's still good, but I'm not a big fan of it honestly.**

**The next chapter is the flashback episode that gives us the backstory of the Nogitsune and I have no idea how to work that into the story. It was such an important moment for Scott and Kira that I don't want Scarlet there to ruin it. I would love suggestions from you guys on how to do it, if you'd submit them. Please.**

**I own nothing but Scarlet. **

* * *

When I woke up, I saw that Stiles was unconscious and Deaton was there with us now. I groaned and rubbed my forehead, wincing when I looked at my fingers and saw blood. I sat up slowly and saw that Kira had already woken up and looked as dazed as I did.

"Please tell me that I fell and knocked myself unconscious and then dreamed about my boyfriend being psychotic," I asked, standing up slowly and holding onto the table to keep myself steady.

I saw the blood on the front of Scott's shirt and Stiles slumped over onto the ground. I literally wanted to be sick and felt it burning my throat, but I forced it back down. I looked away from Stiles and tried to keep myself from becoming hysterical.

"I'll watch over him until it's safe to let him go home. You all need to go sleep," Deaton said, placing a hand on Scott's shoulder and giving it a comforting squeeze.

"There's no way I'm sleeping any time soon," Scott muttered, and I nodded my head in agreement.

"I think I'm going to drive Stiles' Jeep home," I said, crouching down beside his body and digging the keys out of his front pocket. "I think that's the best idea considering I can't ride on your dirt bike with you _and_ Kira."

"That's a good idea, but let Deaton check you out and make sure you're okay to drive. You were unconscious for two hours," Scott told me, coming over to me and hugging me tight.

* * *

I had just closed my eyes when Scott shook me awake. He couldn't explain to me how he knew, but he knew that Stiles was checking himself in Eichen House. The name sent chills through me and made goosebumps pimple my skin.

I shoved my feet into shoes and tied my hair up as I ran downstairs. I wasn't even worried about what I looked like, I had to save my boyfriend. There was no way I was letting him stay in that nuthouse.

He and I pulled up across from the Sheriff and Stiles right as they were getting out of the cruiser.

"Why didn't you tell us that you were going to do this?" Scott asked, looking from Stiles' face to the Sheriff's.

"Because I didn't want something like this to happen," Stiles replied, looking down at his feet instead of meeting my eyes.

"It's only for 72 hours," the Sheriff added, but I could tell he didn't approve of this.

"This is the same place where William Barrow came from," I said, finally speaking for the first time since we got there.

"The guy who had a tumor inside of him that was filled with flies," the Sheriff said.

"You don't know everything yet," Scott tried to reason, but he cut him off.

"I know enough. Nogitsunes, Kitsunes, Oni or whatever they're called," the Sheriff continued, the desperation clear in his voice. "Guys, I saw an MRI that looked exactly like my wife's, and it terrifies me. I'm headed down to LA tomorrow to talk to a specialist."

"If you're doing that, why are you putting him in here?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest to fight the chill of the night.

Stiles shrugged off his coat and wrapped it around me without a second thought before he said, "He's not; it was my decision."

I felt my stomach drop to my knees when he said that. Stiles was checking himself into a mental health facility?! He seriously thought that he was so bad off that it wasn't safe for him to be outside.

"Stiles, I can't help you if you're in there!" Scott said, grasping at straws now.

"And I can't hurt either of you," Stiles said, not meeting my eyes when I looked over at him.

I knew he was remembering what he'd done to both of us last night. He twisted the samurai sword that was in Scott's stomach and he had knocked me completely unconscious. I would be a liar if I said that side of him didn't scare me, but this was not the answer I wanted.

"Deaton's got some ideas, Argent's calling people," Scott kept trying, but I knew Stiles' mind was made up. "We're going to find something and if we can't…"

Stiles' eyes were filling up with tears, but he blinked them back before speaking. "If you can't… If you can't, then you have to do something for me, okay? Make sure that I never get out and take care of Scarlet."

I rushed forward and wrapped my arms around Stiles. I felt him flinch a little bit before hugging me back just a tight, if not tighter. He was whispering things in my ear that I couldn't make out, but the gentle hum of his voice soothed me.

"I love you so, so, so much," I told him, pulling back enough to stand on my tiptoes and pressing our foreheads together.

He kissed all the skin he could reach without pulling away from me. "I love you and I'm doing this so I can keep you safe. Please don't do anything stupid and, as much as you hate doing it, please listen to Scott."

I laughed humorlessly and kissed him right as Sheriff Stilinski said, "We have to go, son."

I reluctantly let go of him and let Scott hug him briefly. I had to hold onto Scott with a death grip so that I didn't fall. The love of my life was going into the place that William Barrow had been, the place that he got freakin' flies in his stomach from.

"Stiles can handle himself in there, he'll be okay," Scott told me, maneuvering me backwards towards his dirt bike that we'd rode here on.

* * *

"I just feel like I'm totally useless in this entire situation," I said, scrubbing my hands down my face. "I couldn't help anyone if I tried."

I looked down at Isaac and saw that he was still in the same position that he'd been in when I came in. I was at the hospital during lunch to visit him. I knew he couldn't see me, but maybe me being here would comfort him or something.

"I wish I had the werewolf ability to take away your pain like Scott does," I said, taking his unburned hand in mine and rubbing his knuckles with my thumb. "But I don't so I just have to sit here with you and hope it helps.

"Maybe I'm being selfish by talking to you about me when you're a burn victim in the hospital. I just wanted to put how I felt out there, you know? And you're a great listener when you're conscious, so I figured you'd be one when you're unconscious too."

"Honey, your lunch break is almost over. You'd better head back before you're late," mom said, sticking her head into Isaac's room.

I nodded and stood up, leaned down to kiss his cheek. I saw a small smile worm its way onto his face, and it made me feel a little bit better. Maybe he's pain was ebbing away or something…

* * *

"You realize that you sound completely and totally crazy right now, right?" I asked Lydia with an incredulously look on my face.

"My father said all of the Katashi evidence is being moved to a Federal Lockup by armored car tonight," Allison said, ignoring my outburst. "Probably within the next few hours."

"We're going to rob an armored car and you think that's not crazy?" I asked, tossing my hands up in the air in surprise.

"Well, we're going to try," Lydia answered. "And as for the crazy, when are any of our plans _not_ crazy?"

"Okay, so none of us knows the route they're going to take," Scott said.

"If Allison can get one of her dad's GPS trackers on the armored car, then we can follow it," Lydia told him.

"So when it gets here…" Aiden started.

"…we attack them?" Ethan finished.

"No!" I told them, shaking my head and rubbing the bridge of my nose. "We're not attacking anything if we can help it."

"Scarlet's right," Scott said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "Your bikes will be in the middle of the road, looking like you guys got into an accident."

"And when the driver gets out to help…" Lydia trailed off, hoping they'd get the message, but I knew they wouldn't.

"We attack them?"

"NO!"

"You're going to distract him and Scott's going to break open the back door," I explained as the others fumed with frustration.

"I hope," Scott added, not making me feel any better.

"And you'll get Katashi's finger," Allison said.

"It's not his actual finger, is it?" Scott asked, disgust clear on his face.

The look actually made me laugh. It was a genuine one and it felt good to finally let one out. I missed being happy, it felt like I hadn't been in way too long.

"We're in so far over our heads," I finally said, sitting on the desk that sat in the hallway of our house.

"You know, a little encouragement could be helpful," Lydia told me with a pointed look, but I just waved it off.

"Why are we just going to Stilinski for help?" Aiden asked, bringing us back to the conversation at hand.

"Because if he gets caught, then it's the Sheriff tampering with federal evidence," Allison answered as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Guys, this is going to work," Scott said, trying to rally us all together. "We can do this!"

"We're losing Stiles," I said out of nowhere.

"My dad's in jail for murder," Allison said, jumping onto my bandwagon.

"We need to do this," Scott said finally.

* * *

I went with Lydia and the twins, leaving Scott and Allison to sneak the tracker onto the armored car. I was kicking a rock back and forth with my foot when the twins' ears perked up. I knew they'd heard something that Lydia and I didn't.

"Scott needs us, you two stay here and stay out of trouble," Aiden said, kissing Lydia's lips and dropping a quick kiss on my head before running with Ethan.

"You're in love with Aiden," I told him, hitting her hip with mine. "See? You're not even arguing with me!"

"I don't know if I'm in love with him, but I know that I really care about him," she said, walking over to the curb and dusting it off before perching on it. "I'm just scared to fall for someone again after what happened last year."

I knew she meant Jackson and the Kanima thing. He'd been a lizard that had killed people, but it wasn't his fault. He ended up being controlled by a classmate that had to be killed in order to stop him. Yeah, killing happened a lot in Beacon Hills.

"I know all about homicidal boyfriends," I told her, sitting down beside her on the curb. "If you're into Aiden, I get it. He's pretty great once you get over his track record."

She leaned her head against my shoulder and took my hand in hers. "We're going to find a way to fix Stiles. We have to."

I could hear the desperation in her voice. We were all desperate to find a way to save him, but we were quickly realizing that it was harder than we originally thought. Sitting there with Lydia in the dark while we waited for a call to say that our friends were safe was nerve-wracking, but at the same time it was calming. It was so normal that it was almost ironic.

* * *

After quite a fight, Scott and everyone else showed up to get Lydia and I. They had the scroll, but Deaton wasn't lying when he said that they could be any size. This thing was miniscule, like, if you blinked, it could go missing.

The twins parted ways with us, but Allison, Lydia, Scott, and I went to the Animal Clinic. Deaton needed to read this and tell us how to fix Stiles. I hated the idea of him still being in that awful place. He was probably scared and alone and helpless. I shivered at the thought of how alone he probably felt right now.

"Does it say anything?" Scott asked him.

"My Japanese isn't great," Deaton responded. "But it appears to say that one method of expelling a Nogitsune is to change the body of the host."

"Change the body?" I asked, chewing on my bottom lip as confusion filled me up.

"Which begs the question, how do we change Stiles' body?" Deaton asked, but I could tell by the look on his face that he already knew the answer. He was waiting for us to realize the answer.

"By turning him into a werewolf," Scott answered, making me gasp in surprise. "To get the Nogitsune out of Stiles, I have to change him."

* * *

**Like I said earlier, any suggestions would be much appreciated! Just leave them in the review box and I'll love you forever :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**This chapter was the hardest thing that I've ever had to write! I had no idea what to do with it because it was the flashback episode with Kira's parents. I tweaked a few things and changed one major scene, but I did it for a reason.**

**I also re-read a couple of chapters from Aeonian and realized that I've changed Scarlet's personality. I want her to seem like she has no idea what she's doing, but not as much as I did. I tried to bring back her fiery personality and her smarts, and I hope that it works. If it doesn't, I'm sure you guys will let me know as nicely as possible.**

* * *

I took a deep breath before taking the club that Allison handed me. The thought of ever having to use it on Stiles made my stomach give a painful lurch, but I held it regardless. She was trying her best to just find the non-lethal ones and there weren't a lot of them. Seeing that, I said a silent prayer of relief that Stiles had gotten possessed after she'd gotten her sanity back. I couldn't even imagine the psychopathic Argents hunting him, it made me want to vomit.

"Hey, we're going to do this. We have to," she said, sensing my unease.

I felt a bubble of hysteria coming up and ran to the bathroom. I puked into the toilet until I couldn't anymore before standing up. I washed my mouth out, but I couldn't seem to make myself meet Allison's eye. She was so strong and brave, there was no way she could understand my weakness.

I was beyond surprised when she pulled me close to her and hugged me. I tried my best to take in all of her strength and courage, hoping that maybe some of it would rub off on me. I needed as much as I could get before we went into what we were about to go into.

Allison and I were on our way to the hospital to meet with Sheriff Stilinski. Her dad and Derek were going to Eichen House to try and find some scent for Stiles. He'd gone missing from there as well, but we had enough evidence to show that he was full Nogitsune now.

Scott was with Kira and her parents learning the story behind the Nogitsune. I couldn't stand sitting still while Stiles was out there somewhere so I went with Allison instead of him. I figured Scott and Kira could do all of that and then report it back to me later or at least that's what I told myself.

''I'm sorry, I just can't seem to make my hands stop shaking," I finally spoke. "I'm trying, I really am."

"It's okay, let's just go," she said, turning on her heel and expecting me to follow. "We can do this, there's too many of us not to."

I knew there were so many holes in her logic that it could be a net, but I ignored it. I knew there was a _huge_ chance that not all of us would survive this, maybe not even tonight. I was human with only the minimal training that Allison gave both me and Lydia last year after she'd been trained by Kate. I couldn't even kill flies so I knew that it wasn't going to do me much good.

* * *

Allison and I were in the hospital when I finally talked again, "I'm sorry that I'm not as strong and fearless as you are. I try so hard to be like that, but I'm too fragile. I'm too scared and useless."

"Do you seriously think that I'm not scared out of my mind right now?" she asked me, reaching out and stopping the elevator before turning her body to face mine. "I'm not fearless… I'm terrified."

She started to cry at that and it triggered my own tears. Allison powered through her tears and said, "I'm always scared, I know I act like I know what I'm doing, but I don't. I don't know if Isaac's dying right now. I don't know if I made a mistake with your brother. I don't know what my dad is thinking. I don't know if we should trust Derek. I… I don't know anything."

I did the only thing I could think to do: I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight. She was sobbing against my shoulder and her walls finally broke. The careful mask she'd sculpted since her mother seemed to crash to the ground and she was the scared little girl I saw in the hospital hallway.

That's what we all were, really. We were all just scared little kids that had been forced into something without signing anything. I had a brother who was suffering with his "true alpha" persona, a boyfriend who was possessed by something evil, a friend who screamed every time someone died, and a ton of other people who were going through stuff too. It wasn't fair, we were just teenagers who should be happy and not full of worry.

"It's not fair, we're all just kids," I told her through our combined cries. "We should be worrying about passing Econ and homecoming, not whether or not my demonically possessed boyfriend is going to light up and entire hospital or if your… Isaac is going to live with his burns."

I felt Allison's laugh more than I heard it. "You're right. Nothing about any of our lives is fair, but nothing about life is either. Sometimes you just have to compartmentalize things; put all of your emotions into a little box and deal with them later and I think this is one of those times."

We'd let go of each other by now and were just standing with a few inches between our bodies. "I've always thought of you as a friend because of Scott. I've never seen you as anything other than this fearless, courageous, completely intimidating girl that can do anything. I've always admired that about you."

"Are you serious?!" she asked, wiping her eyes and smiling at me. "If anything, I've always admired you! You're the girl that's friends with everyone. I've never met anyone that has a bad thing to say about you, you're literally perfect. As if that wasn't enough, you're beautiful and have the temperament to think that you're not fearless and courageous in a way that's all your own.

"You're a human who runs with wolves, banshees, hunters, Kanima, Nogitsune, Kitsune, Oni, and god only know what else by the end of this semester! I saw the way you stood up to Peter that night that the killed Kate, the way that you screamed at him to back off of us and distracted him so I could shoot the jar," she told me. "I remember that night in the school when you took charge and calmed all of us down when your brother ran out to be killed. You were sobbing, but you still managed to be strong and calm all of us down. I wish I could have the humility that you have."

I'd never thought of myself like that before. I seriously just thought that I was some sniveling little girl that everyone just put up with because of Scott. It was reassuring to know that other people actually liked me. I hugged Allison once more before wiping my face and pushing the button to start the elevator again.

"Girls, I'm glad you got here safe," he said, taking in our disheveled appearances. "You are okay, aren't you?"

"We will be once Stiles is safe," I answered for both of us.

A sudden buzzing noise drew all of our attention. The Sheriff pulled out his phone and explained, "Someone's breaking into my house. After Stiles started sleepwalking, I had some security precautions put in: motion sensors, cameras…"

He trailed off and I saw why. Stiles, well the Nogitsune version of him, was sitting on his bed waving at the camera. I felt hope swell in my chest that he was alive, but it was quickly trampled when I remembered that it wasn't him. He wasn't him anymore and it killed me.

* * *

We'd all reconvened in Stiles' room, but he wasn't in there. I didn't really expect him to be, but there was always that sliver of hope that I was wrong. The only people in the room were Chris and Derek. I didn't even want to know how they got inside honestly.

I looked over at Stiles' nightstand and saw a picture frame. It held a picture of the two of us from second grade. I was missing one of my front teeth and my hair was in pigtail braids. He had three missing teeth on the bottom and I remember the whistling sounds when the pair of us talked.

"Why are there all these sticky notes on the chess pieces?" Derek asked, drawing my attention away from the picture frame.

"This is what Stiles used to explain to me about all of you," Sheriff Stilinski explained, making me smile at the humorous memory. As if he was thinking the same thing as me, he added, "It didn't work as well as he'd planned."

"You think there's any reason my name's on the king?" Derek asked, eyeing up the chess board.

"Well, you're heavily guarded," Sheriff Stilinski tried to justify Stiles, but I knew there wasn't any way to do that. "Though I guess the alarming detail is that you're one move from being in checkmate."

"This isn't a message from Stiles, it's a threat from the Nogitsune," Chris said, drawing out attention over to him.

"Oh my god, it means he's at the loft. That's what he's trying to tell us," I said suddenly as all the pieces fell together for me. "And he wants us to go there with him."

"That couldn't sound any more like a trap," Derek said, thinking over what I'd just said.

"I don't think it is," the Sheriff said, his desperation to find Stiles outweighing his good judgment.

"I think your opinion might be slightly biased, Sheriff," Derek argued. "He has no rhyme or reason behind anything that he does. He's a trickster, the killing is just a by-product."

"If you're saying that it won't kill us, I'm not feeling too confident about that," Chris said.

"It won't. The Nogitsune wants irony, it wants to play a trick," I said, making them all look over at me like they forgot I was in the room with them. "It wants a joke, all we need to do is come up with a new punchline."

Allison's speech earlier made me realize that I'd lost who I really was. I wasn't the helpless, useless girl that just followed others around. I was smart and I was going to help them find Stiles.

* * *

**OMG this chapter was so short and so shitty! I'm so sorry, but review maybe?**


	10. Chapter 10

**I'm very proud of Scarlet in this chapter, she becomes such a strong character. It's also a long one and a lot happens in it, but I think it's one of my better chapters. **

* * *

The Sheriff was the first person to walk into the loft. I knew he thought that he could convince Stiles to go back to the station without a fight and I didn't have the heart to tell him he was wrong. He could've convinced Stiles to go back, but Stiles wasn't the one standing there.

Chris, Allison, Derek, and I were standing just outside the door. Derek must've heard something that the rest of us didn't because he growled and walked in. The rest of us followed him, but I made sure that I stayed behind them. I knew that if I looked at him, I was going to be a goner.

I saw Allison lift her arm and heard the Taser buzz. I stepped out from behind Chris in time to see Stiles grab the string and let the electricity course through him before he dropped it. He smirked at her before advancing, or at least I thought, but he was just tricking us all.

Derek didn't seem to catch that. He pounced onto the Nogitsune and I expected a harsh fight to break out, but it didn't. Derek wasn't an alpha anymore, he was a beta and no match for the Nogitsune's strength. He was tossed to the side like he weighed nothing and I didn't see him moving to stand up.

I rushed over to Derek and saw that he was still breathing, but I shouldn't have moved. It drew the Nogitsune's attention to me and it was going to use it. It smiled at me and it looked so much like Stiles that my heart gave an uncomfortable leap.

"Scar, are you okay? I don't want you to get hurt," it told me, crouching beside me and holding my face in its hands.

I bit my bottom lip and leaned into its grip, even though I knew I shouldn't. I missed Stiles and wanted his touch no matter how I got it. The Nogitsune seemed to sense that because its grip tightened on me and its eyes turned cold. I felt my jaw starting to ache, but I wasn't going to tell it that.

"You're so stupid, little girl. You think you're strong by not saying anything, but it just makes your pain that much sweeter," it seethed, leaning forward and sniffing near my ear. "It's _amazing_!"

I heard Derek growl from beside me, tearing me out of the Nogitsune's tight grip. I winced and stumbled over to Allison, clutching her arm in my hand as I tried to steady myself. I was more than surprised that tears weren't in my eyes. Then I realized that I wasn't sad, I was pissed beyond belief.

Derek was tossed to the side again but not as roughly as before. He stood up and I saw his eyebrows raise considerably. I followed his gaze and saw Chris holding a gun up, level with the Nogitsune's face. Even if it wasn't Stiles, I still felt fear course through me.

"Argent, listen to me," Sheriff Stilinski said, obviously having the same thought that I did. "Don't do this."

"Why not? I've done it before," Chris said without looking away from the Nogitsune as he clicked the bullet into the barrel. "Werewolves, beserkers; I can easily add a Nogitsune to the list."

"You're not going to shoot my son," the Sheriff said.

"You said it yourself, Stilinski, that's not your son," Argent replied, still not backing down.

They were at a standstill, both of them too stubborn to back down. Sheriff Stilinski was fighting for his son, or what he thought was his son, and Argent was trying to do what he thought was right.

"Put it down," Allison said suddenly, moving up to her dad.

"Put it down," Sheriff Stilinski repeated.

"Dad! He's going to shoot me," the Nogitsune was the perfect Stiles. "He's going to kill me, dad!"

"Don't listen to him," Derek tried to help. "He's not your son, he's playing with you."

The next thing I knew, the Sheriff had his gun pulled and was aiming it at Chris. Everyone was still screaming and yelling at each other. The air in the room was desperate and intense and completely crazy. Then it hit me; this was what the Nogitsune wanted. It lived off strife and chaos and insanity.

"Stop, stop it! This is what it wants," I screamed at everyone, making them all fall quiet and look at me. "This is exactly what it wanted from the very beginning."

"Not exactly, I was kind of hoping Scott would be here," the Nogitsune told me, smirking at something I couldn't see. "But I'm glad you all have your guns out because you're not here to kill me, you're here to protect me."

I looked out the big window behind the Nogitsune and saw that the sun had gone down. This was yet another trick that it was playing on us. Just as I was thinking that, the Oni manifested thought the big window and stood in front of all of us.

A lot of things happened at once after that. Allison handed me the club from earlier before ducking around me. She drew back her bow and let an arrow sail through the air. I wish I would've brought a better weapon with me, I was fucked if any of them came near me.

I heard Derek hiss from the side and saw him hit the ground. Despite what happened earlier, I scurried over to him and bent down by his head. I wasn't doing anything productive anyway, I could at least check on him,

"Hey, are you alright? Your shoulder is nasty," I told him, helping him sit up slowly. "Like, gushing blood and hanging skin nasty."

"You're not being helpful," he told me through clenched teeth, clutching his arm as he tried to stand up.

"Shut up," I said to him, wrapping his good arm around my shoulders and helping him stand the rest of the way. "I think they're gone now."

Right after that left my mouth, the doors burst open and Scott ran inside. I felt a bit of relief that he was okay, but it was very minimal. I helped Derek walk over to one of his couches and sit down before rushing over to Scott. He hugged me and I felt his shoulders sag; he'd been worried about me, too.

* * *

Kira ended up staying the night with Scott so I spent the night at Lydia's. She didn't question why I was there, she just led the way up to her bedroom. I excused myself into the bathroom and showered off Derek's blood. I didn't even realize that he'd bleed on me.

When I got out, I was looking in the mirror and saw the bruises. There was almost a perfect thumb shape on the right side of my jaw and a big blue one on the left side. They were what the Nogitsune was smiling at earlier, I would almost place money on it. It loved the idea that it'd hurt me.

I yanked a brush through my hair quickly and hurried back into Lydia's room. She was sitting on her bed, leafing through a magazine. Her eyes wandered up to me, and she was immediately on her feet when she saw my face. She gingerly tilted my face up with a finger under my chin.

"Scarlet, what happened to you?" she asked in a hushed whisper.

I took a deep breath before telling her about everything that went down at the loft. I didn't leave out any details, only stopping when the story ended. I still wasn't crying, my voice didn't even waver as I spoke. I wasn't weak anymore, she must've rubbed off on me.

"Stiles did this to you?" she asked in confusion.

"No, the Nogitsune did," I answered her without a doubt in my voice. "I know Stiles would never, _ever_ hurt me like the Nogitsune has."

* * *

I couldn't tell you how I ended up in the backseat of Lydia's car with Aiden in the front, but somehow I did. I had no idea where we were going and, by the way Lydia was driving, she didn't know either. I could tell that Aiden was just as confused as I was when we made eye contact in the side mirro.

"Lydia, are you going to tell us where we're going?" I asked her trying my best to be delicate.

"I've told both of you, I've got to check on something," she answered, turning right without looking back at either of us.

"Well, I'm actually a little worried that we're totally lost," Aiden said, lacking the amount of subtly that I had.

"Why do you think that?" she asked, annoyance clear in her voice.

"Because you just made your fourth right," I answered for Aiden. Then I added, "And four right turns make a circle."

"I did not! Did I?" she asked, more to herself than to us. Then louder she said, "This is a brand new car, the GPS was fine before."

"Maybe the GPS would work better if it was on…" Aiden said, trailing off when Lydia's eyes met his. "Are you okay?"

I could feel the fear coursing off of her. She thought she was listening to the GPS, which probably meant that it was something banshee related. I'd learned to not question things a lot through the two year crash-course in all things supernatural that I'd been forced into.

"I need to stop," she said, suddenly veering off of the road into a parking lot. "I need to pull over right now!"

She kept driving until we stopped in front of someone slumped over on the ground. I pushed open the car door and slowly made my way over to the body. I heard Aiden mumble something behind me before stepping ahead of me. I'm sure it was something along the lines of "you need to be more careful," just a little more colorful.

"Is that Stiles?" Lydia asked, standing beside me.

"I'm going to call my brother," I told her, pulling my phone out of my sweater pocket. "It's the Nogitsune, Aiden; be careful."

* * *

Scott and Aiden were struggling underneath the Nogitsune's dead weight. They dropped it onto our couch before coming to stand with mom, Lydia, Deaton, and me. We were all just kind of staring at its body, wondering what we needed to do next.

"Guys, this is crazy! He needs to be in the hospital," mom said from her spot between Lydia and me.

"Mom, remember what happened the last time he went to the hospital?" Scott asked her, trying his best to convince her otherwise. "Deaton's here, and he's better than a doctor when it comes to stuff like this."

"It doesn't look like he's bleeding," Deaton said, moving forward to check out his stomach. "I think he might even be healing."

"You mean like we do?" Scott asked, moving forward to stand with Deaton.

When Deaton nodded, I asked, "Isn't that a good thing?"

"For him, yes; for us, I'm not so sure," he answered and I felt my stomach plummet to the floor.

After Deaton said that, I went into the kitchen. I really didn't want to watch what was going to happen. Even if it wasn't Stiles, he still looked just like him. If they were going to hurt him, I didn't want to be a witness to it.

I was tapping my fingers against the counter when a hand covered them. Mom smiled at me softly when our eyes met and I threw myself into her arms. I just wanted to feel her warmth and her stability, she was the only thing that was constantly the same in my life.

"Tell me what's going through your mind right now. I can practically hear the gears turning," she said after I let go of her and she sat on the stool across from me.

"I know that that's not Stiles, I feel it in my stomach that it's not," I told her. "He looks just like him, talks just like him, and acts just like him when he's playing with us. Then he does something and it's like a punch in the stomach because I forget long enough that he's the Nogitsune and then I remember."

Mom held my face in her hands and I tried my best to not flinch. "What's wrong with your face? Am I hurting you, Scarlet? Did that _thing_ hurt you?"

I pulled out of her grip and looked down at the tiles of the kitchen. I felt her thumb rubbing against the skin of my jaw and then I heard her gasp when she saw the bruises. I'm sure they were even worse than they were this morning. I felt shame course through my body and couldn't meet her eyes.

"I'm sorry." I whispered to her, biting my bottom lip.

"What? Why are you sorry, baby? You didn't do it," she said, standing up and pacing the floor.

"No, but I didn't stop him from doing it. I stood there and let it happen so it's my fault." I told her. "I should've tried to get out of his grip."

"If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I can't keep my kids safe; Scott's a werewolf and you're getting bruised by a Japanese demon," she said, scrubbing her hands down her face in frustration.

"Do you feel that bubbling in your stomach? That tightness that almost makes you jittery? That's how I feel all the time," I told her, standing up and stilling her. "I'm constantly frustrated because everyone treats me like I can't handle myself in this mess, but I can. I can't change that I'm human, but I'm smart enough to keep myself alive and I feel like everyone forgets that."

"You are so my daughter," she said before pulling me back to her in a tight hug. "Stubborn, strong-willed, and a temper. God, you're going to do wonders."

"Hey, do you think you can come patch him up?" Deaton asked, coming into the kitchen with us. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt anything."

"You're fine, I think we're finished here," mom said, stepping back from me. "Scar, can you grab the first aid kit from the bathroom for me?"

I nodded and made my way upstairs to the bathroom. I dug around for a while before coming out with the white box that she wanted. I stood back up and caught my reflection in the mirror. The bruises were dark blue, almost black, and stood out against my pale skin. I seriously needed to get back outside soon, it wasn't normal for a Hispanic to look pale.

I jogged back down the stairs and into the living room. I saw Scott and Deaton talking over in the corner while mom sat in front of the Nogitsune. She didn't look scared to be near him, she looked pissed and I knew she wasn't kidding earlier. I was most definitely her daughter.

"Here you go," I handed her the box without looking at the Nogitsune.

* * *

I was standing with Lydia as she twisted her fingers nervously. She was still nervous when it came to Peter Hale and I didn't blame her. The man took complete advantage of her and practically raped her mind; she had every right to be pissed at him.

I moved in front of her and placed my hands on her shoulders, making eye contact with her before speaking, "You don't have to stay here, Lydia. We can go grab some fro-yo or something."

"No, I have to deal with him. I'd much rather do it with you, Scott, and Deaton here with me," she answered, taking one of my hands in hers when the door rang.

Peter walked into the living room and Lydia's grip on my hand tightened. Her look stayed fierce and determined, making pride course through me.

"He doesn't look like he would survive a slap across the face, much less the bite of a werewolf," he said, eyeing up the Nogitsune sitting on the couch.

"You don't think it'll work?" Scott asked sadly, rubbing his palms against his jeans.

"This is more a war of the mind than the body," Peter told him, smiling like it was all a game to him. "There are better methods to winning this battle."

"What kind of methods?" I asked, biting my lip nervously.

Peter's smile become absolutely sinister when he replied, "We're going to get into his head."

He turned to face Lydia and she let go of my hand to approach him. It made me nervous for her to be that close to him, but I doubted he would do anything with all of us here. While they were talking, my eyes drifted over to the Nogitsune.

It was looking at me with molten caramel eyes that made my stomach twist uncomfortably. It had no right to look so much like Stiles. I felt anger flood through me as I marched over to him, clenching my fist and connecting it with his face.

"Whoa, shit!" Scott explained, rushing forward and grabbing me. "That was one helluva punch, sis."

"It has no right to look like Stiles. None," I snarled, still spearing him with my glare.

My hand was throbbing now, but the look on its face was worth it. The pure shock that colored his features sent a surge of happiness through me.

"Okay, sit down and don't hit anyone else. The last thing we need is for you to break your hand," he instructed, pushing me into a chair before going back over to Peter and Lydia.

"Put this on your hand to reduce the swelling," mom said, waking over to me with an ice pack. "That was fantastic and I'm glad you did it because it would've been inappropriate if I did."

I held the ice pack to my hand and felt the cold soaking into my aching knuckles. I'd probably split them because I'd hit him straight across the cheekbone. I still didn't regret it in the slightest bit though.

When the group broke apart, Deaton said, "So, do we have a plan?"

"Scott is going to try and dig through pale and sickly Evil Stiles' mind to unearth pale and sickly Real Stiles. Then guide him back from the depths of his own subconscious," Peter explained. "But he's not going to do it alone."

I saw Scott raise his brows and he quickly asked, "What do you mean?"

"Somebody needs to go in with you. Someone that has a strong enough hold on Stiles that he would follow them anywhere," Peter said. "Almost like a lovesick puppy."

Everyone's eyes flitted over to me and I knew that I was going to go under with Scott this time. In many ways, I was Stiles' anchor even if he wasn't a werewolf. I knew he was my anchor as well and I would do anything to help bring him back to safety.

"I'll do it," I said with a note of finality.

* * *

I ended up sitting beside the Nogitsune with Scott behind us on the coach. Apparently he was going to sick his claws into our neck and we were going to go into Stiles' mind somehow. I wasn't totally sure what was going to happen so I figured I'd ask some questions.

"So what do we do if we find him?" I asked, chewing on my bottom lip.

"You're going to have to guide him out somehow; try to give him back control of his mind, his body," Peter answered cryptically.

After another squabble between Lydia and Peter, I felt Scott's claws at the base of my neck. I felt them pierce my skin and a whimper escaped my lips. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly until the pain faded and I forced them back open again.

I was strapped into a bed from my head to my feet. I tried to wiggle my way out of it, but the restraints were too tight to move. I heard rattling and looked over to see that Scott was tied down like me.

"Do I need to remind you that you've got super-wolfy-strength?" I asked him, straining to make eye contact with him. "Can't you tear out of them like they're nothing?"

"Yes, but we're in Stiles' head," he said like that made a difference.

"And you're a supernatural creature with supernatural strength. That doesn't change just because we're in a different place," I told him. "Break free!"

I saw him straining and at first nothing happened. Then I heard the bed start groaning and then ripping until Scott was on his feet. He rushed over to me and unstrapped all the things around me. I shivered at the thought of Stiles being tied up like that, it was awful.

"Okay, we're free. What do we do now?" I asked him, clutching his hand in mine.

"I don't know," he answered, lacing our fingers together. "This is my first time in someone else's head. This is all new to me. Just stay behind me, okay?"

I nodded and followed him until he just _disappeared_. I looked around for him, but he was nowhere to be found. I was standing in a basement with a couch and table in front of me. I saw two people laying down on it, but I couldn't see who they were.

As I got closer, I saw that it was Stiles and he wasn't with me. It was Malia Tate and they were making out more than Stiles and I ever had. He pulled away from her long enough to pull her top over her head before going back in for more kisses.

"Stiles! What are you doing?" I cried, pulling the sleeves of my sweater down over my hands. "Stop it!"

When he didn't even pause, I turned around. I wanted to get as far away from them as I possibly could. I saw a man with bandages all over his face and a slit where his mouth should be back against a wall. He smiled at me and I saw rows of razor-like teeth. Then he moved his hand along the wall and drew the backwards five that I had behind my ear, the kanji for self.

I knew I had to get out of there so I ran up the stairs and found a door. Then I heard Lydia screaming my name and knew that I needed to follow it. I couldn't explain why I did, but it just made sense to me. I pushed through the door and into a big white room.

"Scarlet!" Scott shouted, running over to me from the other side of the room. "Why are you crying? Are you okay? What happened to you?"

I just shook my head and wiped my eyes. I had bigger things to deal with than whether or not my boyfriend cheated on me with a stupid werecoyote. Movement in the corner of my eye made me look over and I saw Stiles sitting with the thing from earlier. I realized then that that thing was the Nogitsune.

"Scott, look!" I said, turning him to face what I was seeing.

They were sitting cross-legged across from each other with a stump between them. When I looked closer, I saw that it was actually the Nemeton. There was a board game sitting on it and they were both lost in concentration about their moves.

Scott and I both started running over to them, but they seemed to get further away instead of closer. We started yelling his name and flailing our arms, but it was useless. He had no idea we were there.

I was trying to figure out a way to get his attention. If he couldn't hear our voices maybe that meant there was something louder. Or something that would draw all of our attention like a scream or a _howl._

"Stiles is a part of your pack," I said, hoping he got what I was saying. "We're all your pack, we might not all be werewolves, but your howl should still work."

"And wolves howl to tell their pack where they are," Scott said, suddenly getting what I was saying. "Oh my God, Scarlet, you're a freakin' genius!"

He looked over at them before his eyes turned red and his fangs sprouted. The howl made my ears perk up and it seemed to settle inside of me. Almost calming me down, soothing my frazzled nerves.

I saw Stiles look up for the first time and look over at us. He knocked the game off of the Nemeton and jumped to his feet. The Nogitsune started screaming and throwing things, but that was the last thing I saw before everything went black.

I inhaled deeply and opened my eyes to see that I was back in the living room. Lydia was crouched in front of me, holding tissue to my nose. I raised my brows and she quickly explained.

"Your nose started to bleed and I started screaming your name," she told me, hugging me tightly. "Peter said that you were lost and you needed help finding your way out."

I was about to respond to her when I heard someone start coughing. She moved back as I lunged over to the Nogitsune. I lost sight of her as I focused on what was happening in front of me.

I thought I was beyond being freaked out with all the things I've experienced, but I was so wrong. When dirty gauze started coming out of the Nogitsune's mouth instead of vomit when it gagged, I felt my stomach flip. When it stopped vomiting, a black smoke appeared around the bandages and a hand came up out of the middle followed by the rest of a body.

The body tried to run forward, but Scott and Peter slammed it back into a chair. I slapped a hand over my mouth in horror, what the hell was happening right now?

Out of nowhere, Scott said, "Let him go! Something's not right!" Then he started pulling the gauze off of him slowly.

"Scott?"

Underneath it was Stiles, the real one. I rushed forward and wrapped him up in my arms, forgetting what I saw earlier. I pressed kisses to the side of his head and every other part of him that I could get to. His hand meekly held my waist and kissed my hair weakly in return.

"Where is the Nogitsune?" Scott asked suddenly, making me pull away from Stiles and crouching beside him on my knees.

I looked around the room and saw that another person was missing. Fear flooded my veins when I finally forced out, "Where's Lydia?"

* * *

**I know you guys are reading this story still, or at least I hope you are. Do you think you could review this chapter? I haven't gotten any reviews for the last two and I feel a little bit neglected... but no pressure. **


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